Funding opportunity available through NASA EPSCoR The NASA EPSCoR program will be conducting its annual Cooperative Notice Agreement (CAN) research solicitation, which can potentially award up to two proposals in North Dakota, each worth up to $750,000 over three years. As with previous years, there is a 1:1 match requirement. Please pass this announcement along to all faculty at UND and NDSU who may be interested in this opportunity. The official solicitation has not yet been released, but please take note of the following information: 1. Proposals can only be submitted by faculty from UND and NDSU. 2. Proposals must be directly related to one of the four Research Focus Areas of the North Dakota NASA EPSCoR program. They include: (1) astronomical/planetary science research, (2) planetary space suit research, (3) materials sciences research, and (4) Earth sciences research. See http://www.ndnasaepscor.space.edu for more information. 3. A pre-proposal process will begin with this e-mail. All interested PI's should submit a five-page pre-proposal outlining their research goals, methodologies, prior results (if any), direct NASA collaborations (required), and a detailed budget (no more than two pages; not counted in the five-page limit). Any proposal that is not directly aligned with one of the state's four RFAs will be rejected without review. The reason for this is we are attempting to target PI research in the state in areas that already exist and offer the potential for future, significant growth. Pre-proposals should be sent to Dr. Hardersen at Hardersen@space.edu by Saturday, Jan. 10. 4. The FY 2008 NASA EPSCoR CAN is available from me. It is provided as a guide with the stipulation that the FY 2009 solicitation may have modifications or changes. However, they should be very similar. 5. Explicit, direct collaboration with a NASA research/NASA field center is required. If a PI does not have any current collaborative contacts, then the PI should begin contacting NASA facilities and personnel who will be useful collaborators in the proposal. 6. PI's must state an explicit, strong programmatic relevance to NASA. PI's must focus on NASA's research priorities overall, as well as research priorities in NASA's four directorates. Visit this NASA web site for more information: http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html and http://nasascience.nasa.gov/. In the past, PI's have proposed research that is simply a continuation of their existing research projects. Past projects have also lacked NASA collaboration, specifically, and general collaboration among a group of researchers. Remember, the goal of this solicitation is to build up NASA-relevant research capabilities in North Dakota and increase the amount of NASA research funding in North Dakota. 7. The ND NASA EPSCoR Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) will evaluate all pre-proposals and down-select to two proposals by Jan. 28, 2009. The two finalist teams will then develop their full proposals, as per the FY 2009 CAN guidelines that will be issued when received. The director of the ND NASA EPSCoR program is the PI on all proposals, but only assists in submitting the final proposals and monitoring the work of funded proposals. If a proposal is funded, progress reports will be required on a periodic basis throughout the life of the proposal. 8. Notices of Intent (NOIs) for the two finalist teams will be submitted on or before Feb. 1. Full proposals must be submitted no later than March 19. Please contact me with any questions. Please disburse this information to all interested faculty. The ND NASA EPSCoR program is committed to funding high-quality, high growth potential, NASA-relevant research in North Dakota. However, this can only happen with the commitment of faculty to pursue new or continuing NASA-relevant research and those committed to expanding research opportunities in North Dakota. -- Paul Harderson, Space Studies.