Transport Phenomena Research at the International Space Station to Benefit Life on Earth (NSF-ISS)

Supports interdisciplinary research in microgravity conditions that advances fluid dynamics, particulate and multiphase processes, combustion and fire systems, thermal transport processes, and nanoscale interactions for the benefit of life on Earth.

Synopsis

The Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) in the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is partnering with The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS) to solicit research projects in the general field of fluid dynamics, particulate and multiphase processes, combustion and fire systems, thermal transport processes, and nanoscale interactions that can utilize the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab to conduct research that will benefit life on Earth. Only entities that qualify as "U.S. Persons" under 22 U.S. Code §6010, including academic investigators, non-profit independent research laboratories and academic-commercial teams are eligible to apply.

Program contacts

Ronald D. Joslin	rjoslin@nsf.gov	(703) 292-7030	ENG/CBET
Nora F. Savage	nosavage@nsf.gov	(703) 292-7949	ENG/CBET
William Olbricht	wolbrich@nsf.gov	(703) 292-4842	ENG/CBET
Shahab Shojaei-Zadeh	sshojaei@nsf.gov	(703) 292-8045	ENG/CBET
John W. Daily	jdaily@nsf.gov	(703) 292-7937
Sumanta Acharya	sacharya@nsf.gov	(703) 292-4509
Ryan Reeves	rreeves@issnationallab.org	(321) 751-5151

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Program guidelines

Award information

NSF Funding (total) available under this solicitation is up to $3.6 million to be distributed in FY 2023.

Estimated program budget, number of awards and award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds. Project duration must not exceed four years.

Funding for ISS Experiments

NSF awards under this solicitation will provide PIs with support to conduct fundamental and translational research, to prepare experiments for execution onboard the ISS, to collaborate with service providers as necessary, to provide preliminary analysis to conduct the experiment, to analyze and interpret data, and to disseminate results broadly. CASIS operations will assist grantees in translating ground-based experiments and technologies into an appropriate ISS certified hardware solution where possible. All costs associated with the translation of the proposed experiments to flight experiments onboard the ISS, including training of ISS crews, transporting the experiment payload and equipment to the ISS, and conducting experiments on the ISS, will be supported by CASIS through their cooperative agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

CASIS may provide funding to Commercial Implementation Partners for PIs to utilize existing flight hardware and facilities to support proposed research. Please note that proposals requiring significant modifications to hardware or the development of new capabilities will be out of scope for this solicitation. Budget requests for commercial implementation services supported by CASIS are capped at $350,000 total per proposal.

For information regarding available flight hardware for this solicitation, please visit: ISS National Lab RFP 2023-4.

For this year’s solicitation, NASA’s flow boiling and condensation modules - the Flow Boiling Module (FBM) and the Condensation Module for Heat Transfer (CM-HT) of the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) facility, as well as the ground units, are available for support of proposed research.

For other technical and/or operational inquiries, please submit questions to ops@issnationallab.org.

Estimated number of awards

Proposals may only be submitted by certain types of PIs. Please see solicitation for details.

Limit on number of proposals per PI or Co-PI

An individual may participate in any capacity (PI, co-PI, Other Senior Personnel, or Consultant) in only one proposal submitted in response to this solicitation. The submitting organization is responsible to ensure that the PI, co-PIs, Other Senior Personnel, and Consultants are participating in only one proposal. This limitation includes proposals submitted by a lead organization and any sub-award submitted as part of a proposal. Violations of this rule will result in return without review of all proposals including the offending individual except for the first such proposal submitted in time-stamped order.

There is additional eligibility information. Please see solicitation for details.

Review full program guidelines and learn how to submit a proposal in the latest solicitation. Read the Solicitation 23-523

Published:

November 30, 2022

Transport Phenomena Research at the International Space Station to Benefit Life on Earth (NSF-ISS)

View guidelines

Important Information for Proposers

Synopsis

Program contacts

Program Events

Awards made through this program

Transport Phenomena Research at the International Space Station to Benefit Life on Earth (NSF-ISS)

View guidelines

Important Information for Proposers

Synopsis

Program contacts

Program Events

Past

Awards made through this program

Organization(s)