Working with NASA

The NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Manual (GCAM) provides comprehensive policy guidance on pre-award and post-award phases of the grant management lifecycle of NASA grants and cooperative agreements.

New in FY 2025: guidance previously provided in the NASA Proposer’s Guide was incorporated into Chapter 1 of the GCAM, which outlines how to apply for NASA grants and cooperative agreements.

NASA uses a proprietary website called NSPIRES for proposal submissions. 

Important: Ohio State is registered as an organization in NSPIRES. Individual registration and organizational affiliation with Ohio State is required for PIs, sponsored program officers, and other users. Proposals cannot be submitted to NASA without a confirmed affiliation. 

Creating an NSPIRES Account

New users:

• Individual users can register themselves and request an affiliation with Ohio State
• The NSPIRES Online Help page provides instructions for user registration, which includes creating an account and entering organization information to request an affiliation

Ohio State UEI Number:

• When adding the organizational information to request an affiliation, use Ohio State's UEI number: DLWBSLWAJWR1

Existing users:

• If you already have an NSPIRES account, you can request affiliation after logging in by clicking on the "Affiliations" link under Account Management
• Affiliation requests route to Sponsored Programs account representatives for review and approval

Submitting a proposal in NSPIRES

• PIs must initiate proposals in NSPIRES.
• Instructions for creating proposals is available on the NSPIRES Online Help page under Proposals and NOIs.
• An authorized organizational representative (AOR), usually the SPO assigned to the submitting PI/department, must submit the proposal in NSPIRES once completed. 

NASA requires all senior and key personnel on grant and cooperative agreement proposals to disclose current and pending support. These disclosures help NASA assess researcher capacity, identify potential conflicts of commitment, and prevent scientific or budgetary duplication.

Key Requirements

• Who must disclose: All senior/key personnel listed on NASA grant or cooperative agreement proposals
• What to report: Current and pending research support that may impact capacity or create potential overlap
• When to update: During pre-award submission and throughout the award lifecycle as circumstances change
• Institutional responsibility: Entities must notify NASA within 30 calendar days if unreported activities are discovered

During the Award Period

The specific reporting requirements of NASA awards, including a detailed list of the reports, their frequency, and distribution instructions, are detailed in the award document.

Required reports: Unless otherwise specified, recipients must submit annual and final progress reports using the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) data elements, which can be found in the GCAT Grant and Cooperative Terms and Conditions.

Financial reports: Standard Form (SF) 425 reports are submitted in the Payment Management System (PMS) by OSP Fiscal Services.

Other reports: Instructions on submitting other applicable reports, such as annual inventory reports or New Technology Reports, will be described in the award's terms and conditions.

Closeout reporting

Verification process: During award closeout, NASA verifies that the recipient's final reports and any applicable deliverables have been submitted.

Timeline requirements:

• Within 120 days of an award's period of performance expiring, recipients must submit all applicable final reports as detailed in the award terms and conditions to the Grant Officer
• The NSSC may also contact the award recipient and provide additional closeout instructions as necessary

Important deadline: Per 2 CFR 200.344, NASA must make every effort to complete the closeout process no later than one year after an award's period of performance has expired.

Consequences of non-compliance: If an award recipient does not submit all applicable final reports within one year of their period of performance expiring, NASA must report that recipient's failure to comply with their award's terms and conditions in SAM.gov. SAM.gov contains information to support the Federal award decision making process, and Federal agencies review this information when making decisions about grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts.

Federal Law (Public Law 112-55) restricts NASA from providing funding to participate, collaborate or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company. NASA has defined “China or Chinese-owned company” to mean the People’s Republic of China (PRC), any company owned by the PRC, or any company incorporated under the laws of the PRC, including Chinese universities and research institutions.

NASA requires universities to certify compliance with this funding restriction at the prime and subrecipient levels for each proposal submitted and award received. To fulfill this requirement, Ohio State researchers who serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) or a Co-PI on any NASA funded research, or who will be submitting a proposal to NASA for funding, must have a current NASA Certification Regarding Chinese Affiliations completed via DocuSign and on file with the Office of Secure Research before Ohio State will submit a proposal to NASA or accept NASA funding. Completion of the form is required annually. PIs and Co-PIs are asked to have any other individuals who will be working on the research project (faculty, staff, or students) complete the form as well.

ROSES

ROSES (Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science) is an annually released NASA omnibus research funding opportunity, with many individual program elements, each with its own due dates and topics. 

Dual Anonymous Peer Review 

For select NASA programs, NASA is increasingly utilizing DAPR (Dual-Anonymous Peer Review) to minimize the impact of implicit or unconscious bias in the evaluation of the merit of a proposal. 

Funding opportunity announcements (FOA) and all NASA guidelines should be carefully reviewed, as the use of DAPR in a specific proposal FOA may include directions to anonymize budgets, budget narratives and proposal narratives.

Additional Resources:

• FAQs - NASA Science
• For Researchers - NASA Science