NASA has announced that it is awarding approximately $18 million to Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) for research.
The partership between NASA and MSIs aim to bring untapped talent and diverse perspectives to several of the agency’s top priorities. They include understanding and monitoring global ocean health; returning humans to the Moon through the Artemis programme; and helping to build a more inclusive workforce.
NASA will fund approximately $18 million in various projects proposed by MSIs through four opportunities from the agency’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP); which is managed by the Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM). MUREP’s awards, made through its four funding opportunities underscore how partnerships are instrumental in broadening participation in STEM and driving innovative research aligned with NASA’s priorities. They include the OCEAN award, M-Star Implementation Funding, MUREP INCLUDES, and MUREP-Small Business Technology Transfer Research (M-STTR). These funding opportunities will enable institutions to take on some of NASA’s most pressing challenges; while increasing their own research capabilities, allowing them to become more competitive for future awards. The awards also will allow the institutions to broaden their participation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
MISSION EQUITY
“NASA thrives on big goals and monumental challenges; and these demand the brightest minds from the broadest variety of backgrounds and experiences,” stated Mike Kincaid, NASA’s associate administrator of STEM Engagement at NASA headquarters in Washington. “We’re reaching out to historically underrepresented and underserved communities; and creating as many avenues as we can to bring them onboard, whether it’s through awards such as these, NASA internships and fellowships, or other engagements.”
In June, NASA introduced Mission Equity, a new effort to assess the agency’s programmes, procurements, grants, and more as an effort to remove systemic barriers and challenges facing underserved and underrepresented communities, as reported. MUREP plays a key role for the agency by funding opportunities that build infrastructure and research capacity at MSIs; while emphasising student success.
POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS
“MSIs bring their own, diverse viewpoint to answering the research questions NASA continues to seek,” said NASA’s MUREP Manager Torry Johnson. “By broadening participation, MUREP looks to expand the pool of institutions that engage in these critical science and technological discussions; while at the same time introducing potential candidates that will aid in reimagining the future STEM workforce.”
OCEAN AWARD
A collaboration between MUREP and the NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, the Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry (OCEAN) award helps MSIs prepare to compete in future funding opportunities; in line with NASA’s efforts to gain a deeper scientific understanding of our planet. On June 21, NASA awarded 10 MSIs more than $6.6 million in cooperative agreements. This enabled these institutions to take an active role in studying climate change and its effects.
“We’re excited about this partnership,” said Jack Kaye, Associate Director for Research in NASA’s Earth Science Division. “MUREP OCEAN will further capacity at MSIs and expand the investigator community that is addressing the relationship between climate and ocean biology and biogeochemistry. The selected investigations add geographic and topic diversity to our programme and will help create new opportunities for students and faculty to engage in our research for years to come.”
MUREP established the OCEAN funding opportunity in support of NASA’s research into ocean health; focusing primarily on the impacts of climate change on aquatic biology and ecosystems. The agency sought proposals that would either develop remote sensing capabilities to analyse the impacts and/or vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems; due to changing climate or improve understanding of carbon cycle processes and feedbacks in critical aquatic zones that are particularly vulnerable to environmental changes.
M-STAR IMPLMETATION FUNDING
The MUREP Space Technology Artemis Research (M-STAR) awards support NASA’s Artemis programme; which will send the first woman and first person of colour to the Moon. M-STAR was created in partnership with the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) to promote STEM literacy; and boost MSIs’ capabilities to compete in agency research required for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
M-STAR implementation funding builds on M-STAR planning grants awarded in August 2020. On 14 July, the agency awarded nearly $3.5 million in cooperative agreements to seven institutions; five of which previously received M-STAR planning grants. “Diversity is a key component of technology development,” said Jim Reuter, NASA Associate Administrator for space technology. “By investing in and working with MSIs that recruit and support communities traditionally underrepresented in STEM, the agency is accessing and utilising new perspectives, skillsets and solutions.”
MUREP INCLUDES INITIATIVE
Engineering forms the backbone of NASA’s most ambitious goals, and the agency recognises the importance of diversity in problem-solving. NASA, OSTEM, and the National Science Foundation’s Directorate of Engineering signed a memorandum of understanding in 2021 to work together on a new initiative to bring a broader scope of perspectives to NASA’s missions. MUREP INCLUDES built upon the NSF INCLUDES (Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) model to help MSIs form and lead coalitions dedicated to broadening participation in engineering. Its goal is to increase participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields by 2026. This partnership aims to further scale activities as a result of increased lessons learned.
NASA awarded six institutions nearly $7.2 million in MUREP INCLUDES cooperative agreements, which the agency announced just last month (on 21 July). This funding will be used to determine which methods are most effective at bringing diverse students into engineering research; expand existing programmes that are already successful; and explore innovative approaches to fill in identified gaps.
M-STTR GRANTS
The MUREP-Small Business Technology Transfer Research (M-STTR) planning grants are designed to reduce barriers; and pave the way for MSIs and small businesses to compete in STMD’s annual Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Research (SBIR/STTR) solicitation.
NASA’s SBIR/STTR programme enables small businesses to take part in federal research and development. Through STTR, small businesses partner with research institutions to explore their technological capabilities, with the potential to profit on their innovations through commercialisation. The new M-STTR funding enables MSIs to team up with small businesses to explore ideas; build teams; engage stakeholders; and have an action plan to respond to the solicitation. On 5 August, the agency awarded more than $540,000 in planning grants to 10 institutions for 11 projects. The selected institutions will have four months to develop their STTR action plans.
All of the above awards were made through the Education Opportunities in NASA STEM 2021 (EONS 2021) solicitation. M-STAR is a two-year award while OCEAN and INCLUDES each have a three-year period of performance. M-STTR planning grants have a four-month period of performance.
Earlier this summer, NASA announced the launch of Mission Equity; a comprehensive effort to ensure that its programmes, grants and policies are inclusive and accessible to all. Click here to read more.
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