SSC CIF Project Ideation Fund

Employees need an opportunity to engage in shorter duration Ideation types of innovation activities than what is typically thought of as a year-long CIF project. SSC would like to further embrace this spirit of innovation and encourage even short duration/small scale efforts by offering ideation level funding opportunities. The hope is that more of the employees will be willing to take those early, small steps toward innovative efforts and technology development that will enable them to develop larger space technology and center related proposals and projects.

There are still many civil servants, largely in the operations-oriented branches at SSC, though they may be aware of needs for improvement in technologies, processes, etc. in their work environment and though they may have ideas about what may need to be done to make those improvements, have not applied to the CIF program. \nMany times, they just need the opportunity to explore their issue a bit more to either: 1) attempt to resolve it quickly through a short study and test; or 2) to conduct searches into the SOA so as to develop a larger CIF or other R&D proposal. Additionally, funds may be needed to help support doing work with the NASA@Work Platform and/or related CoECI contracts. This SSC CIF Project Ideation Fund is intended to help address that need.\n The broader SSC CIF Ideation Fund can be used for idea/seedling activities leading to more specific CIF proposal development that could benefit any internal NASA mission, other government agencies or space industries. The specific ideation activities in FY19 lead to CIF proposals that could benefit Lunar or Martian missions and related ISRU propellant development activities. Such capabilities could benefit other government agencies and the commercial space industry with an interest in more efficient rocket engine testing approaches/processes.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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.