2020 HERO Appendix B: NASA Human Research Program Omnibus Opportunity | 80JSC020N0001 OMNIBUS1

Opportunity Information: Apply for 80JSC020N0001 OMNIBUS1

The 2020 HERO Appendix B: NASA Human Research Program Omnibus Opportunity (NRA 80JSC020N0001-OMNIBUS1) is a solicitation from NASA Johnson Space Center under NASA's Human Research Program (HRP). It sits within the broader Human Exploration Research Opportunities (HERO) umbrella announcement (80JSC020N0001) and is specifically framed as an applied research call meant to directly support HRP goals and objectives tied to human spaceflight. The intent is to bring forward practical, innovative research that can help NASA better understand, prevent, or mitigate the human health and performance challenges associated with exploration missions.

The opportunity focuses on short, targeted projects: NASA is asking for investigations lasting no more than one year. Proposed work is expected to address risks and knowledge gaps already captured in HRP's Integrated Research Plan, which is publicly available through the Human Research Roadmap website. In other words, the program is looking for research that is tightly connected to NASA's defined problem set for keeping crews healthy and capable during spaceflight, including the kinds of biomedical, behavioral, and operational issues that can affect astronaut safety and mission success.

At the same time, Appendix B also carves out space for fresh ideas from new investigators. NASA explicitly invites novel concepts that may not align perfectly with the currently cataloged HRP risks, as long as they are compelling and potentially relevant to human space exploration. This portion is designed to broaden the pipeline of researchers and ideas, and it includes an eligibility condition aimed at ensuring the investigators are truly new to this specific funding ecosystem: the solicitation highlights interest in investigators who have not received funding from NASA HRP, NASA EPSCoR, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, or the Translational Research Institute for Space Health within the past ten years.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity that may result in awards made as grants, cooperative agreements, or procurement contracts, depending on the nature of the proposed work and NASA's determination of the appropriate instrument. The program lists an award ceiling of $150,000 and anticipates making around 10 awards, indicating relatively small, focused projects rather than large multi-year efforts. The CFDA number associated with the opportunity is 43.003, and the solicitation was created on July 31, 2020.

Eligibility is broad across U.S. institutions. NASA states that all categories of U.S. institutions may apply, and principal investigators are allowed to collaborate across universities, federal laboratories, industry, and state or local government laboratories. The submitting organization, however, is expected to take responsibility for managing and administering the project consistent with the management approach described in the proposal. For international participation, NASA reiterates its standard policy: research with non-U.S. organizations can occur only on a cooperative basis with no exchange of funds, meaning NASA generally will not directly fund foreign entities under this call, though collaboration may still be possible under those constraints.

The application process uses a two-step structure. A virtual pre-proposers conference was scheduled for August 14, 2020 to brief potential applicants and provide guidance, with details to be posted in NSPIRES (NASA's proposal and award system). Step-1 proposals were due September 1, 2020, and invited Step-2 proposals were due December 1, 2020. Supporting documents and the full Appendix B materials were linked through NASA's HERO pages, and the overall HERO announcement provided access to this and other open appendices under the same umbrella solicitation.

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA Johnson Space Center in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "2020 HERO Appendix B: NASA Human Research Program Omnibus Opportunity" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 43.003.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 31, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 01, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $150,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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