ALABAMA NASA EPSCoR RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT FY15 EXTENSION

The purpose of the Alabama NASA EPSCoR RID program is to build core capabilities at Alabama's universities and other collaborative institutions. We shall build competitive research and technology development capabilities in areas of interest to both NASA and the State of Alabama. The interests of NASA are defined in the CAN (pages 6,7 and 8), in the 2014 NASA Strategic Plan, and by the 3 strategic goals of the Office of Education's ARCD. The interests of the State of Alabama in this regard are defined by the Alabama State EPSCoR Committee (SEC), which oversees all EPSCoR programs within the state. The PI of this proposal is Dr. L. Dale Thomas, the Alabama NASA EPSCoR Director, the Alabama Space Grant Consortium Director, and a professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Alabama proposes a RID program based on the following elements: - Seed research grants to researchers in early stages of their careers - Faculty travel and research support - Development of cooperative ties with NASA Centers or the OCT The core of the Alabama RID program will be the development of individual researcher capability: Seed Grants. Most of the other elements will be embedded within this core element. We propose this because the Seed Grant program that has been run by our office for the past 10 years has been very successful. Development of connections with NASA Centers will be done through a small travel grant program specifically directed to allow researchers partial funding to visit named NASA researchers at field centers or headquarters to explore possibilities for future collaborations or funding.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.