Grants & Opportunities – NeRDs Moonbase

NASA, Collaborators Announce a New Student Lunar Autonomy Challenge!

October 8, 2024 NeRD

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This video shows NASA’s IPEx Excavator in a digital simulation environment. Credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Space is hard, but it’s not all hardware. The new Lunar Autonomy Challenge invites teams of students from U.S. colleges and universities to test their software development skills. Working entirely in virtual simulations of the Moon’s surface, teams will develop an autonomous agent using software that can accomplish pre-defined tasks without help from humans. These agents will be used to navigate…

NASA Awards Support STEM Research at Minority Serving Institutions

July 1, 2024 NeRD

A photo of MPLAN principal investigator awardees from various minority-serving institutions at the 2023 NASA Better Together conference in San Jose, California. Credits: NASA NASA has selected 23 minority-serving institutions to receive $1.2 million to grow their research and technology capabilities, collaborate on research projects, and contribute to the agency’s missions for the benefit of humanity. Through NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Partnership Learning Annual Notification (MPLAN) award, selected institutions will receive up to $50,000 each for a six-month period to work directly on STEM projects with…

NASA Awards University Research Projects to Support Agency Missions

June 4, 2024 NeRD

Credits: NASA NASA announced the recipients of the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grants, which will support scientific and technical research projects for more than 20 universities and organizations across the United States. “NASA’s EPSCoR awards are a tool to strengthen research capacity in areas across our nation that have historically been underrepresented in government research,” said Torry Johnson, deputy associate administrator of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Engagement Programs at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The goal with each award is to provide institutions a long-term and…

NASA Awards Expand Research Capabilities at Institutions Nationwide

May 10, 2024 NeRD

A photo of a team of researchers from the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras while working to discover a more efficient water recycling system for use on space missions. The team is comprised of doctoral students Liz Santiago-Martoral, on the left, and Alondra Rodriguez-Rolon, and their mentor Professor Eduardo Nicolau. One of their experiments can be seen on the countertop to the left of the group. Credits: NASA NASA is awarding approximately $45 million to 21 higher-education institutions to help build capacity for research. The awards were made possible through…

Approval to Exceed GSA Lodging for LPSC 2024

December 18, 2023 NeRD

2 min read Approval to Exceed GSA Lodging for LPSC 2024 This letter from SARA is to issue a waiver for NASA grantees attending LPSC 2024 allowing them to be reimbursed out of their grants for their actual lodging, although it’s expected to be above the approved GSA amount. This waiver does not supersede the travel policy of your institution if it is more restrictive. Note: I have specified grants (including cooperative agreements). This may also apply to those traveling on NASA contracts, but they should communicate with their contracting…