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Team Experience and Competition Awards Now Open

NC Space Grant is pleased to release our annual Team Experience and Competition Awards opportunity for teams of undergraduate and graduate students. In spite of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19’s impact on campus-based collaboration opportunities and in-person competitions for 2020-21, NC Space Grant recognizes the value team-based experiential learning presents to students, whether the collaborations and competitions occur in person or virtually.

NC Space Grant recognizes that this academic year, some competitions may be significantly modified, delayed or postponed due to the impacts of COVID-19. NC Space Grant will allow teams to propose collaborative team work experiences that build toward a future competition. All proposers must adhere to state and college/university COVID-19 policies and procedures for classwork, teamwork, labs, travel and any other competition/challenge guidelines.

Building Teams, Building Students’ Skills

NC Space Grant awards funding to undergraduate/graduate STEM teams to help them participate in national competitions either sponsored or sanctioned by NASA or another STEM-related organization. In the past, student teams have participated in competitions such as the NASA Student Launch Initiative, NASA Swarmathon, NASA Mars Rover Challenge, NASA Robotic Mining Competition, Shell Eco-Challenge, AUVSI Competition and others. Competitions should be in the fields of science, technology, engineering or mathematics, and complement the academic studies of the team members.

NC Space Grant anticipates supporting up to 10 team competition grants of up to $5,000 each, based on available funding and strength of proposals. Funds can be used to purchase supplies and materials to support the team project and/or cover registration and travel expenses.

Competitions must provide students with a hands-on experiential learning opportunities related to one or more of NASA’s Mission Directorates, which include:

Submit a Team Proposal

Proposals are due online at 12 p.m. EST, Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, and must be submitted by a faculty advisor, who will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI).

Learn more and submit proposals on our Team Experience and Competition Award page.

Top photo: Members of the University of North Carolina Charlotte 49er Rocketry team prepare their rocket and payload for the 2019 NASA Student Launch Initiative competition. The 49er Rocketry team won second place overall in the 2019 and 2020 competitions, in addition to multiple awards across the judged categories. Photo © UNC-Charlotte 49er Rocketry team.

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