AAS - The American Astronomical Society
ACMA - Atmospheric Composition Modeling and Analysis
ADP - Astrophysics Data Analysis program
AIST - Advanced Information Systems Technology program
AGU - The American Geophysical Union
AO - Announcement of Opportunity which governs how NASA solicits proposals for investigations such as flight missions, balloons, sounding rockets, etc. These usually result in contracts, as opposed to an NRA for proposals via NSPIRES that usually result in grants.
AOR - Authorized Organizational Representative. NASA proposals (through NSPIRES) are not submitted by individual scientists, engineers or educators, they come from an institution (such as a university). The Authorized Organizational Representative must be an official representative of that university (for example) who has the authority to approve overhead rates in the budget, etc.
APRA - Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis
ASTID - Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development and Mission Concept Studies
ATFP - Astrophysics Theory and Fundamental Physics program
CAN - Cooperative Agreement Notice. This kind of call results in a cooperative agreement (as opposed to a grant or contract) which might be used to develop a research institute, an extensive educational/public outreach activity or provide technology transfer to develop a capability to enhance U.S. competitiveness.
Co-I - Co-Investigator a person who plays a significant role on a proposed project and usually receives funding from that grant.
Co-PI - Co-Principal Investigator a person who shares the direction of and responsibility for a proposed project.
DAP - Data Analysis Program associated with a mission. There are many variants e.g., CDAP Cassini Data Analysis Program DDAP Discovery Data Analysis Program, etc.
EPO - Education and public outreach. See the Opportunities page in Science Mission Directorate Education and Public Outreach
GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems
GRACE - Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
HGAO - Headquarters Grants Administration Office Although physically located at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the headquarters Grants Administration Office (HGAO) supports the Science Mission Directorate's grant and cooperative agreement issuing process. The resource analysts in HGAO assemble the proposal and other documentation required for the Government to issue a grant or cooperative agreement, withdraw the funding from the appropriate NASA budget, and create a purchase request for the award. The resource analyst sends the complete award package with funding to a NASA procurement office.
HQ Procurement Office at GSFC (Code 210.H) - The HQ Procurement Office, physically located at GSFC, issued grants and cooperative agreements for the space flight center and the science mission directorate through April 2006. The HQ procurement office is responsible for issuing annual funding continuations and closing out all awards that they initiated. The web site for tracking grants and annual continuations can be found at http://grantstatus.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
IAT - Interagency transfer. Mechanism by which NASA can send funds to another government agency.
LASER - Lunar Advanced Science and Exploration Research
LSSO - Concept Studies for Lunar Sortie Science Opportunities, see Press Release.
LWS - Living With a Star program
MFRP - Mars Fundamental Research program
MIDP - Mars Instrument Development Project
NASA Contracts - A contract is a funding mechanism that is used to acquire items, products, property or services for the federal government's direct benefit or use. NASA's Science Mission Directorate uses contracts to acquire data and scientific results from flight investigations (typically resulting from selection under an Announcement of Opportunity) as well as flight hardware, mission operation services, science centers, etc. Contracts may be awarded to universities and other private institutions, but not to federal installations (like NASA centers). The Jet Propulsion Lab is operated by Caltech under a contract with NASA. Contracts are issued by one of NASA's procurement offices.
NASA Grants - A grant is an award of financial assistance, the principle purpose of which is to transfer funding from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose. NASA's Science Mission Directorate selects recipients for grant awards for the purpose of conducting research investigations and communicating broadly the knowledge gained. Grants may be awarded to universities and other private institutions, but not to NASA centers or a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) like JPL. Grants are issued by the NASA Shared Services center (NSSC).
NASA RTOP - A Research and Technology Operating Plan (RTOP) is an internal NASA funding mechanism that is used to assign funding to a NASA center for the purpose of carrying out a specific research task. An RTOP is what NASA's Science Mission Directorate uses instead of a grant to fund PI led research investigations at NASA Centers. NASA also uses RTOPs to apply funding to the JPL contract to carry out PI led research tasks at JPL. RTOPs are issued directly from NASA Headquarters to the recipient center or JPL.
NEO Near Earth Object - Asteroids or comets whose orbit intersects Earth's orbit and which may therefore pose a collision danger. Due to their size and proximity, NEOs are also more easily accessible for spacecraft from Earth. In fact, some near-Earth asteroids can be reached with much less ΔV (change in velocity) than the Moon.
NEOO - Near Earth Object Observations
NESSF - NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
NSSC - In May 2006 the NASA Shared Services Center began issuing all new grants and cooperative agreements for the Science Mission Directorate. After a phase-in period, NSSC now issues all grants and cooperative agreements for the agency including SMD and all 10 NASA centers. Following receipt of a complete award package, including funding, an NSSC grant officer issues the award to the recipient organization. NSSC is also responsible for issuing annual funding continuations for multi-year awards (following receipt and approval of the annual progress report) and for closing out the award (following receipt and approval of the final report). The status of all NSSC awarded NASA grants may be found using the grants status search page which can be found in the library section of this site.
NOI - Notice of Intent, a short description of proposed research submitted via the NSPIRES web page in advance of a proposal submission. NOIs are not required, but are very useful to the program officer as assemble the review panel. NOI's are non-binding. Submitting one does not mean you will necessarily submit the proposal.
NPP - NASA Post-Doctoral Program
NRA - NASA Research Announcement. These solicitations call for research proposals in areas of specific interest to NASA. NRAs are described in the NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) 48 CFR Part 1835.
NSPIRES - NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System. Web page at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/ listing areas of NASA research. Proposals are submitted here.
NSSC - The NASA shared services center - provides a variety of services to NASA; plays a key role in the disbursement of funds for research and analysis grants. This office is physically located at NASA's Stennis Space Center. In May 2006, the NASA Shared Services Center began issuing all new grants and cooperative agreements for the Science Mission Directorate. After a phase-in period, NSSC now issues all grants and cooperative agreements for the Agency including SMD and all 10 NASA Centers. Following receipt of a complete award package, including funding, a NSSC grant officer issues the award to the recipient organization. NSSC is also responsible for issuing annual funding continuations for multi-year awards (following receipt and approval of the annual progress report) and for closing out the award (following receipt and approval of the final report). The NSSC grants home page provides reference information on NASA grants. The status of all NSSC awarded NASA grants may be found using the grants status search.
OPR - Outer Planets Research program
PG&G (PGG) - Planetary Geology and Geophysics program
P.I. - Principal Investigator, the person in charge of a NASA PI-led mission or research proposal.
PIDDP - Planetary Instrument Definition and Development
PME - Planetary Major Equipment program
P.O. - Program Officer, (sometimes referred to as Discipline Scientist, Technical Officer, Program Manager or Program Scientist; we will adopt program officer to refer to the person at NASA Headquarters who manages a science program (i.e., handles all aspects of the proposal call, sets up the review panel, submits funding decisions to the selecting official, approves annual reports etc. See a complete list of program officers for research and data analysis programs.
R&A - Research and Analysis, including Data Analysis.
ROSES - Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences to request funds to perform peer reviewed, competitively selected science research for NASA. See ROSES site for details.
SARA - Service and Advice for Research and Analysis, Science mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters. See the SMD organization chart.
SHP - Solar and Heliospheric Physics program
SMD - The Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, 300 E ST SW, Washington, DC, 20546
SSO - Origins of Solar System program
SRLIDAP - Sample Return Laboratory Instruments and Data Analysis program