Mississippi NASA EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Development (RID) Program

The goals for the proposed MS NASA EPSCoR RID program align with the overarching goals of the nation-wide NASA EPSCoR program and complement the goals of Mississippi to grow and attract aerospace and aerospace-related industry as stated in the Mississippi Science and Technology Plan (http://www.msepscor.org/publications/). The proposed budget for the Year 4 funding extension maintains prior year funding for the two program elements supported by MS NASA EPSCoR RID. Program Element: Seed Grants Three $32,500 seed grants will be awarded annually. A call for proposals will be issued each December to faculty in the Mississippi Research Consortium (MRC) member institutions. The call will be disseminated to the research offices at the four universities, communicated directly to faculty via email, and posted to the MS NASA EPSCoR website (http://msnasaepscor.org/). The MRC (http://www.mississippiresearch.org/) serves as the Jurisdiction EPSCoR Committee. As such, the full MRC is listed as participants on the EPSCoR RID Technical Advisory Committee. Dr. David Shaw, the MRC Chair, is by extension the Jurisdiction EPSCoR Committee Chair. Six other industry and at large members of the committee provide a robust review and evaluation process for the seed-grants. Program Element: Travel Grants Travel funds to develop new relationships with NASA scientists and engineers in the Mission Directorates and Field Centers will be available to STEM Faculty at MS Research Universities. The Year 4 Funding Extension will allow an extension of the timeframe for travel through 5/31/2019. The travel opportunity will be communicated to faculty using the same network used to distribute the seed grant solicitation.

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.