Solicitation of White Papers
from researchers at any of the institutions of higher learning within the  
Mississippi NASA EPSCoR Jurisdiction
issued by the
Mississippi NASA EPSCoR Office
in response to the
 FY 2014 NASA EPSCoR Research Announcement/Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN)

The Mississippi jurisdiction may submit one proposal to the 2014 NASA EPSCoR program for three years of funding for a maximum of $250,000 per year, or $750,000 per award; NASA requires a cost-share of 50% of the requested amount.  This announcement is to solicit and give instructions for preparing a “White Paper” from potential proposers at Mississippi universities.  One of these White Papers will be selected by the Mississippi Research Consortium (MRC) for development into a full proposal to NASA.

To be selected for development into a full proposal, a white paper must demonstrate the best combination of:

• direct ties with, and responsiveness to the objectives of a NASA Center or Directorate,
• a collaboration among two or more Mississippi colleges or universities, and
• involvement of faculty/students from groups underrepresented/underserved in STEM

The most competitive white papers may also demonstrate partnerships or cooperative arrangements with one or more of the following:  other government agencies, business/industry, private research foundations, jurisdiction agencies, local agencies, and/or additional academic institutions.

All white paper submissions must be submitted to MS NASA EPSCoR Director Peter Sukanek (cmpcs@olemiss.edu) by 5 p.m. Wednesday, 2/12/2014. Dr. Sukanek will conduct the first-stage review to assess the white paper’s responsiveness to the CAN/solicitation. The white papers, along with the first stage review assessments, will then be provided to the MRC, who will judge and select the best paper for development into a full proposal for submission to NASA. Director Sukanek will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) on the full proposal, providing “leadership and direction for the team from an oversight role”.  The investigator in charge of the scientific direction of the proposed work should be listed as the Science-PI.

NASA EPSCoR research priorities are defined by the Mission Directorates, the Office of the Chief Technologist, and NASA’s ten Centers. Short descriptions of these, and URL links to longer descriptions, may be viewed in the Full NASA Solicitation (Solicitation #NNH14ZHA001C).
 

Evaluation Criteria: Intrinsic Merit; NASA Alignment and Partnerships; Management and Evaluation; and Budget Justification.

Format for White Papers: 4 pages or less, 11 or 12 point Arial or Calibri font, single-spaced, one-inch margins, PDF.  Smaller font is acceptable for tables/illustrations but should be easy to read.

White Paper Sections: All together, sections 1-4 below must not exceed 3 pages. Sections 5 – 7 are optional (but recommended if applicable) and do NOT count against the 3-page limit.

1. Cover Info: should include Title, Lead Institution and Science PI, Other Participating Institutions and Co-Investigators (co-Is) and Collaborating Institutional PI’s, NASA Center partners or other partners, Mission Directorates and priorities addressed, and academic disciplines/departments.

2. Project Summary and Description: should include the objectives, relevance of those objectives to NASA priorities, description of what is novel, description of anticipated impact, and short description of technical approach.

3. Budget Summary and Justification: should include sufficient details that your Chief Research Officer will be able to confirm that you are requesting appropriate, reasonable, and allowable funds, and that you or your institution can meet the 50% cost share requirement by allowable cash or allowable in-kind contributions. Include personnel and work effort.

4. NASA Partnerships: should document existing or planned partnerships with specific NASA centers or entities.

5. Results from 2013 MS NASA EPSCoR RID Grants (OPTIONAL): should summarize the accomplishments to-date resulting from the submitter’s 2013 research infrastructure development (RID) grant, IF APPLICABLE (1 page).

6. Letters of commitment or collaboration from NASA (OPTIONAL): Include one or more up-to-date letters from NASA partners documenting history of, intent of, or openness to, collaborating on this project. No page limit.

7. Reviews of Previous NASA Proposals (OPTIONAL and IF APPLICABLE): If this is to be a revision and resubmission of a previous unfunded proposal to NASA, include a summary of the NASA reviews, and plans to shore up all identified weaknesses (1 page).
 

For More Information:

Full NASA Solicitation: From https://nspires.nasaprs.com, Click “Solicitations” then “Open Solicitations” then Solicitation #NNH14ZHA001C.

Anticipated Awards: 3 to 5 awards nationwide. See abstracts of 14 funded 2013 proposals at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/viewrepositorydocument/cmdocumentid=377928/Abstracts.pdf.

Cost Sharing: Required, at least 50% of the monies requested from NASA.

Notice of Intent (NOI) to Propose: To be submitted by MS NASA EPSCoR Director Sukanek, once the winning White Paper is chosen, no later than Feb. 24, 2014.

Full Proposal: Must be submitted by MS NASA EPSCoR Director Sukanek through University of Mississippi to NASA, no later than Mar. 24, 2014

Confidentiality: Proposers should not include confidential information that they don’t want to be seen by the MRC CROs and their designated white paper reviewers.

Current Mississippi NASA EPSCoR Grants: one involving UM, MSU and JPL on the topic of high velocity impacts of space debris; a second with MSU, JSU and Glenn, on the topic of advanced turbulent flow prediction for nextgen air transport; and third with UM and MSU on antennas and reflectarrays for space science missions.
 

For questions about this call for white papers, e-mail or call Peter Sukanek cmpcs@olemiss.edu or (662) 915-7024.