The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters has released a solicitation, titled Early Stage Innovations (ESI), as an appendix to the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) umbrella NASA Research Announcement (NRA) titled "Space Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Infusion 2024 (SpaceTech REDDI 2024), on April 4, 2024. The ESI solicitation is available by opening the NSPIRES homepage at https://nspires.nasaprs.com/, selecting “Open” under "Solicitations," and searching "Early Stage Innovations (ESI24)" under Keywords. 

The Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) Program within STMD seeks proposals from accredited U.S. universities to develop unique, disruptive, or transformational space technologies that have the potential to lead to dramatic improvements at the system level — performance, weight, cost, reliability, operational simplicity, or other figures of merit associated with spaceflight hardware or missions. The projected impact at the system level must be substantial and clearly identified. 

Only accredited U.S. universities are eligible to submit proposals. Teaming is permitted – see solicitation for complete eligibility requirements as well as teaming restrictions. 

A Principal Investigator (see solicitation for restrictions) or Co-Investigator may participate in no more than two proposals in response to this solicitation. 

NASA encourages submission of ESI proposals on behalf of tenure-track or tenured faculty members at all U.S. universities and especially encourages proposals submitted on behalf of and/or that include as team members women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities. 

The solicitation exclusively seeks proposals that are responsive to one of the following two topics: 

Topic 1 – Computational Materials Engineering for Lunar Metals Welding 

Topic 2 – Passive Lunar Dust Control through Advanced Materials and Surface Engineering 

NASA anticipates addressing other topics in future ESI Appendix releases. 

The financial and programmatic support for ESI comes from the Space Technology Research Grants Program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate. Awards are planned to start in January 2025. NASA plans to make approximately 6 awards as a result of this ESI solicitation, subject to the receipt of meritorious proposals. The actual number of awards will depend on the quality of the proposals received; NASA reserves the right to make no awards under this solicitation. 

STMD is strongly committed to ensuring that proposal review is performed in an equitable and fair manner that reduces the impacts of any unconscious biases. To this end, this Appendix will employ a Dual-Anonymous Peer Review (DAPR) process to evaluate proposals. Using DAPR, not only are proposers not told the identities of the reviewers, but the identities of the proposers (personnel and organization names) will not be shared with the reviewers until after the technical review of all anonymized proposals has been completed.  

All proposals must be submitted electronically through NSPIRES by an authorized organizational representative. Notices of Intent (strongly encouraged) are due by May 9, 2024, with proposals due on or before June 6, 2024, 5 pm Eastern. Detailed submission instructions and due dates are provided in the solicitation. Potential proposers and their proposing organizations are urged to familiarize themselves with the submission system, ensure they are registered in NSPIRES, and submit the required proposal materials well in advance of the deadline. 

All technical and programmatic comments and questions may be addressed by email to the Space Technology Research Grants Program Executive, at [email protected]. Responses to inquiries will be answered by email and may also be included in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) documents located on the NSPIRES page associated with the solicitation; anonymity of persons/institutions who submit questions will be preserved.