Faculty Research Engagement Grant

Goals

The North Carolina Space Grant (NC Space Grant) Faculty Research Engagement Grant (FREG) program is designed to provide support for faculty research that engages students in the work. This award is aimed at both emerging and established researchers whose work is aligned to one or more of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Mission Directorates.

The goals of the Faculty Research Engagement Grant are to support faculty research that:

1. Has strong scientific and technical merit,
2. Aligns to one or more NASA Mission Directorates, and
3. Meaningfully engages undergraduate and/or graduate students in faculty-led research endeavors.

Project Overview and Guidelines

Funding and Performance Period

Space Grant may award up to four (4) Faculty Research Grants subject to sufficient federal funding and the quality of the received proposals. Applicants whose final proposal has been accepted may be asked to revise scopes of work, start and end dates, and budgets to align with available funding.

The Faculty Research Engagement Grant will be awarded for up to a 2-year (24 month) period of performance (POP) at a level of up to $40,000 per award (up to $20,000 per year). The full period of performance is June 1, 2025 – May 31, 2027.

• Year 1 up to $20,000: June 1, 2025 – May 31, 2026
• Year 2 up to $20,000: June 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027

Non-federal matching funds are required and must equal at least 50 percent of the federal funding request (i.e., for every one federal dollar, 50 cents match is required (0.5:1)). This cost-match should be demonstrated in the proposed budget. Facilities and Administrative (F&A or overhead) costs are not allowed. Even though indirect costs (IDC) may not be charged, they may be included as unrecovered IDC costs as part of the match requirement.

As required by NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM), all NC Space Grant-supported projects must respond to information and data calls as requested, as well as submit a final project report. Data calls must include student demographic data and engagement levels (e.g., contact hours); a list of all publications, proposals, presentations, patents, etc.; and information about key project activities, milestones, findings and results, and/or deviations from the initial proposal. Reporting requirements are listed in Section 7 of the Request for Proposals.

Eligibility

• This solicitation is open to faculty members from all four-year accredited colleges and universities in the State of North Carolina, public or private.
• Awardees must be qualified to serve as a principal investigator (PI) at their respective institution.
• Faculty members participating in the Faculty Research Engagement Grants are not required to be U.S. citizens.
• All student(s) financially supported with award funds must be U.S. citizens. Students otherwise engaged in the work but who do not receive funding directly from this award are not required to be U.S. citizens.
• Submission is limited to one proposal per PI. There can only be one PI per proposal.
• Pls may only receive 1 award during the entirety of the NASA grant period (2025-2028).

Application Process

Full proposals will be submitted using an online proposal-management system portal.

The deadline for proposals is 5 p.m. EST, Friday, November 29, 2024. The portal will automatically close after this time. Please do not wait to the last minute to start the proposal submission process.

All elements of the proposal must be combined into a single PDF document. A complete application package includes:

• A signed Title Page (Signed by the PI and an authorizing official)
• Project Description (10 page maximum)
• Detailed Student Engagement Plan (1 page maximum)
• Project Timeline for Key Activities and Milestones (1 page maximum)
• References Cited (pages as needed)
• Current and Pending Support (1 page maximum)
• Curriculum Vitae for the PI (2-page limit)
• Letter(s) of Support (pages as needed)
• Budget and Budget Narrative (3-page limit)
• Recommended Out-of-State Reviewers (1 page limit)
• Data Management Plan (2-page limit)

Proposal Format

The following guidelines and restrictions apply to all proposals. Proposals not meeting these requirements will not be considered.

• Proposals must be submitted in PDF format.
• Proposals shall use standard size 8 1/2” x 11” paper with at least a 12-point font with a minimum 1” margin on all sides of each page. Proposals shall use an easily readable font such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, or Garamond. Illustrations, tables, and charts shall not be smaller than an 8-point font. Page numbers starting after the cover page.
• Proposals should contain only the requested sections. Strict page limits as listed above.

Proposal Content

Some examples of factors to consider in highly competitive proposals: technical and scientific merit, research aligned with one or more NASA Mission Directorate, meaningful student engagement (depth and/or breadth), and a budget that appropriately uses funds to complete the work. This is not an all-inclusive list.

Title Page (1 page)

The cover page must include the following items: project title; period of performance (June 1, 2025 – May 31, 2027); total budget request (up to $40,000); PI’s name, institution, address, phone, and email; signatures from the PI and an authorizing official at the proposing institution (e.g., sponsored research or grant office); and the funding opportunity name (NC Space Grant Faculty Research Engagement Grant).

Project Description (10 pages maximum)

Proposed research is expected to be of strong scientific and technical merit. Pls are expected to use funds for research that aligns to one or more NASA Mission Directorate.

• Aeronautics Research
• Exploration Systems Development
• Science
• Space Operations
• Space Technology

This section should include the following:

• A description of the proposed research goal(s),
• A detailed research plan,
• An explanation of how the proposed research is aligned to one or more NASA Mission Directorate and the importance of the research to NASA (inclusive to commercial space, research on the International Space Station (ISS), etc.).
• An explanation of how the proposed work is aligned to NC Space Grant’s Strategic Plan, and
• How award funds will be leveraged to obtain and sustain research funding.

Detailed Student Engagement Plan (1 page maximum)

PIs are expected to meaningfully engage undergraduate and/or graduate students in their research endeavors. Factors to consider include:

• Depth of student engagement in the research.
• Breadth of student engagement in the research.

This section should include a description of:

• How students will be meaningfully engaged in the research,
• The number and demographics of students engaged (if known) or, alternatively, a detailed recruitment plan and timeline for recruitment and student engagement, and
• An estimate of student funding and/or contact hours (significant and/or non-significant engagement).

A goal of this program is for undergraduate and/or graduate students to be meaningfully engaged in faculty research. As defined by NASA, the term “significant engagement” is used to describe a monetary award or experience that includes one or more of the following: (a) has a value of greater than or equal to $3,000 and/or (b) participation of greater than or equal to 160 hours. All students financially supported by NASA funding must be U.S. citizens.

Implementation Timeline (2 page maximum)

Include a timeline that illustrates and/or describes deadlines, student recruitment and engagement, critical milestones, and other important dates within the period of performance.

References Cited (no max limit)

Use a standard bibliographic format (APA) to list the references cited in your proposal.

Current and Pending Support (1 page maximum)

Identify current and pending support of the PI including: source of support, project title, amount of award, period covered by award, months or percent of time committed by the PI during the award period, and location of research. Describe past projects supported by NC Space Grant (if applicable).

Curriculum Vitae (2 pages per CV)

The PI must include a Curriculum Vitae (CV) that includes their professional experience and positions. A CV should also be included for any partner from a collaborating NASA center/organization/company who will play a key role on the grant (e.g., main point of contact at a collaborating institution), and may not exceed two pages per CV.

Letters of Support (Pages as needed)

A letter of support should be included from the university or college dean or department head, for example, in support of the research and work proposed for this award. A letter of support should also be included from any key collaborator(s) (e.g., universities and colleges, NASA, federal laboratories or research facilities, the ISS U.S. National Lab, commercial space and other industry partners, formal and informal education partners, state and local government agencies, etc.). Letters should outline the importance of the proposed research and/or the nature of the relationship under this grant (an email from the collaborator is acceptable).

Budget and Budget Narrative (4 page maximum)

Provide detailed budget information using the format outlined in Appendix A, as well as a Budget Narrative or justification. Complete the budget template for separate budget years (Year 1 and Year 2) and a cumulative budget for the entire period of performance, i.e., one page for Year 1, one page for Year 2, one page for a cumulative budget, and one page for the budget narrative. Cost-share requirements must be shown as required (50% non-federal matching funds).

Specific budget details are noted below:

• Direct salary (or stipend) expenses for PI and students should be separated by title or role with hours, rates, and total amounts for each person.
• Proposed travel should include the number of trips, destination, duration, etc. at state per diem rates. International travel is not permitted under this award.
• All students (graduate and/or undergraduate) supported must be U.S. citizens.
• Funds cannot be used to purchase equipment. Funds can be used to purchase supplies and materials.
• Overhead costs are not allowed. Unrecovered facilities and administrative costs, however, may be used for required cost-matching.
• The detailed budget must include a description of the required 50% non-federal matching funds.
• Unrecovered salary and travel can be used to meet the cost-match requirement.
• Utilization of funds solely for the purpose of supplementing summer salaries is discouraged.

Recommended Reviewers

Provide the name, title, institutional affiliation, and current contact information for at least four (4) out-of-state reviewers for this proposal who are considered knowledgeable in the proposed area of research. Do not list individuals with known conflicts of interests.

Data Management Plan (2 pages maximum)

Consistent with the NASA Plan for Increasing Access to Results of Federally Funded Research, new terms and conditions about making manuscripts and data publically accessible may be attached to NASA awards. Some proposals may be required to provide a Data Management Plan (DMP) or an explanation of why one is not necessary given the nature of the work proposed. Any research project that does not require a DMP to be submitted shall be explicitly indicated. The type of proposal that requires a DMP is described in the NASA Plan for Increasing Access to Results of Scientific Research (see link below): https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/206985_2015_nasa_plan-for-web.pdf

Proposal Submission

Proposals must be submitted via the online application system by 5 p.m. on Friday, November 29, 2024 at:

One complete, single electronic file in PDF format is required. An authorized college/university signature is required on the cover page.

Review Criteria

Proposals will be reviewed by out-of-state peers who are experienced in relevant NASA STEM fields, but not necessarily experts in each proposed field of research. Proposals will be evaluated for technical/scientific merit; alignment to NASA mission directorates and the NC Space Grant strategic plan; student engagement; and budget.

Proposals will be scored as per the following parameters:

• Scientific and technical merit of the research goals and plan. (20%)
• Alignment of research to NASA Mission Directorates and NC Space Grant’s Strategic Plan. (20%)
• Engagement of students (graduate and/or undergraduate) in research. (40%)
• Budget alignment to research plan, costing schedule, and satisfying the cost-match requirement. (10%)
• Letters of support. (10%)

Proposals recommended to NC Space Grant for funding will reflect reviewer recommendations, available funding, and current program priorities. Applicants should be aware that not all highly rated projects will be funded. NC Space Grant does not have enough funding to cover all the outstanding applications we receive.

Additional Information

Reporting and other requirements, as well as the budget template, are available in the full Request for Proposal.

Point of Contact

Sandy Canfield, Assistant Director
srcanfie@ncsu.edu
919-515-5943