Early Career Faculty | 80HQTR19NOA01 19ECF B1

Opportunity Information: Apply for 80HQTR19NOA01 19ECF B1

NASA Headquarters, through its Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), released the Early Career Faculty (ECF) solicitation on March 13, 2019 as an appendix under the broader SpaceTech-REDDI-2019 NASA Research Announcement. The program sits within NASA's Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) portfolio and is designed to help outstanding new university faculty launch and build research programs that are closely aligned with NASA space technology needs. The overall emphasis is on innovative, early stage research that can grow into longer-term contributions to the agency's technology pipeline, while also strengthening the U.S. talent base by training graduate students and building connections with industry and government partners.

The opportunity is limited to proposals submitted by accredited U.S. universities on behalf of eligible early career faculty. The research project must be led by a single Principal Investigator who, at the time of award, is an untenured, tenure-track Assistant Professor at the sponsoring institution. The PI must be either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident. The structure is intentionally PI-centered: co-investigators are not allowed, and the PI is expected to be the primary researcher driving the effort. Collaborators may participate, with restrictions noted in the solicitation (including rules affecting NASA civil servants and JPL), so institutions are expected to review the formal definitions and limitations in the eligibility section before building any external team.

NASA indicated that the appendix would focus on a specific set of anticipated space technology topics. These include advancing human-robot teams for space exploration, terrain mapping and processing algorithms, intelligent calibration of constellations of sensors, and advanced thermal control materials for exploration spacecraft. In practical terms, these topics point to research that can improve autonomous or semi-autonomous exploration, perception and mapping in challenging environments, coordinated sensing and calibration across multiple instruments or platforms, and materials or approaches that help manage heat in demanding spacecraft and exploration conditions.

From a funding and award perspective, NASA planned to make roughly 6 to 8 awards, depending on the availability of funds and the quality of proposals received, and explicitly reserved the right to make no awards if proposals did not meet expectations. The listed award ceiling is $600,000. Awards were planned to begin around November 2019, reflecting an intent to move selected projects into execution relatively soon after selection.

The submission process required electronic submission through NSPIRES or Grants.gov by an authorized organizational representative, meaning the university (not the individual faculty member) is the official applicant of record. A Notice of Intent was strongly encouraged by April 3, 2019, and full proposals were due by May 1, 2019. NASA also emphasized practical compliance steps, such as ensuring institutions are registered in NSPIRES and allowing time to upload all required materials ahead of the deadline, which is often critical for systems-based submissions.

Programmatically, NASA highlighted a broad encouragement for participation across U.S. universities and made a specific point of encouraging submissions for women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities, consistent with building a strong and diverse national space technology workforce. For questions, NASA provided a central email address (hq-ecf-call@mail.nasa.gov) with the STRG Program Executive, Claudia Meyer, identified for technical and programmatic issues and Kimberly Cone identified as the acquisition point of contact, with answers potentially shared through FAQ updates on the solicitation page while preserving the anonymity of questioners.

Key identifiers for this opportunity include the title "Early Career Faculty," funding opportunity number 80HQTR19NOA01 19ECF B1, agency NASA Headquarters, and CFDA number 43.012. The solicitation was categorized as a discretionary grant opportunity and was accessed via NSPIRES under open solicitations for Early Career Faculty (ECF).

• The NASA Headquarters in the recovery act sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Early Career Faculty" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 43.012.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-03-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-05-01. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $600,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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