NASA OFFICE OF THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST NASA INNOVATIVE ADVANCED CONCEPTS PHASE I STUDIES NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT 2012 | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The NASA Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) released a 2012 NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I Studies program, focused on early, initial studies of visionary aerospace ideas. The opportunity is designed to fund multiple short, exploratory Phase I studies that look at bold new architectures, missions, or system-level concepts with the potential to dramatically expand what is considered feasible in spaceflight or aeronautics. This was the second year of the NIAC program at the time, following a 2011 solicitation that selected 30 Phase I studies, and it sits within NASA's broader Space Technology Program as a mechanism for seeding high-risk, high-payoff concepts at a very early stage.

A central feature of this solicitation is its emphasis on far-term, transformative ideas rather than incremental engineering. Concepts proposed for NIAC Phase I are expected to be exciting, largely unexplored, and oriented toward long-range possibilities, but they must still be technically credible and grounded in sound scientific principles. NASA explicitly states that proposals focused on narrow technology development, subsystem-only work, or near-term incremental advances are out of scope. In other words, NIAC Phase I is meant to answer "could this fundamentally new approach work, and what would it look like as an integrated mission or system," not "how do we slightly improve an existing component."

The application process is structured as a two-step submission. Step A consists of a short white paper limited to two pages, intended as an initial screening to identify the most promising and relevant ideas before NASA invites full proposals. Step B is the full proposal stage, but only applicants who are invited after Step A review are eligible to submit a Step B package. This structure reduces the upfront burden on applicants while allowing NASA to concentrate full-proposal reviews on concepts that best match the NIAC intent.

Submissions are handled electronically through NASA's NSPIRES system (NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System) at http://nspires.nasaprs.com. For Step A only, proposers are allowed to submit either through NSPIRES or via Grants.gov, but Step B submissions must be submitted through NSPIRES exclusively. Because NSPIRES is also used to manage roles and certifications for participants, the announcement stresses early registration and setup. Organizations must be registered in NSPIRES and must identify authorized organizational representative(s) who can submit proposals. Principal investigators and other participants such as co-investigators also face registration and profile requirements, so NASA encourages applicants to begin system setup well before deadlines to avoid administrative delays.

Eligibility for this announcement is broadly open. The solicitation is described as an open announcement that anyone may respond to, and it allows participation from educational institutions, commercial entities, nonprofit organizations, research laboratories, government agencies, and NASA Centers (including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Individuals are also allowed to submit proposals as long as they satisfy NSPIRES registration requirements. The listing characterizes eligibility as unrestricted, meaning applicants are not limited to a specific institutional category, subject to any clarifications that may appear in the full NRA text.

Key dates are clearly stated. The Step A two-page white paper deadline was on or before February 9, 2012. Step B full proposals, for those invited, were due on or before April 16, 2012. The announcement was posted and created on December 21, 2011, and it indicates the solicitation would be available in NSPIRES beginning January 9, 2012 under the "Open Solicitations" menu.

From an award and administrative standpoint, the funding opportunity is categorized as discretionary and lists multiple potential funding instrument types, including cooperative agreements, grants, and "other." It is identified under CFDA 43.009, with the activity category listed as Science and Technology and other Research and Development. The notice also specifies that no cost sharing or matching is required, lowering a common barrier for early-stage research applicants.

For questions and clarifications, the announcement directs applicants to contact NIAC program representatives by email at hq-niac@mail.nasa.gov. NASA indicates that responses to inquiries would be sent by email and also incorporated into a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document associated with the solicitation in NSPIRES, with the anonymity of question submitters preserved. The contact section also references John (Jay) Falker, PhD, at the same NIAC email address, and provides NAIS support contact information at nais.support@nasa.gov for applicants who have trouble accessing the announcement electronically.

In practical terms, the opportunity is best read as NASA asking for credible, system-level "what if" studies that are ambitious enough to reshape future mission possibilities, but disciplined enough to be defensible through physics, engineering reasoning, and a clear study plan. Applicants who fit NIAC well are those proposing integrated, far-reaching concepts and using Phase I to establish feasibility, define architectures, identify key technical barriers, and lay out a plausible path for future maturation rather than delivering a near-term prototype or incremental upgrade.

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