Home » 2023 » July

Monthly Archives: July 2023

NASA MSI Engagement Newsletter

Here are some of the latest updates on NASA opportunities for the Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) community from NASA’s MSI Engagement Team. 

SMD Bridge Program Seed Funding  

Award Amount: Total requests may not exceed $300,000 for a duration of 2 years 
Information Site: Check out the SMD Bridge Program Seed Funding website for FAQs   
Information Session: Please see the link to the slides   
SMD Relevance: Please reference the document here on how to determine relevance to the Science Mission Directorate   
Proposal Deadline: Proposals accepted on a rolling basis through March 29, 2024   
Contact: padi.boyd@nasa.gov    
 
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is seeking proposals for seed funding awards to provide support for faculty investigators and their students to carry out NASA-relevant research. The goal of the SMD Bridge Program is to develop sustainable partnerships among institutions historically under-resourced by NASA.   
 

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program 

Award Amount: $3.9-4.4M/year for 5 years  
Information Site: Check out the GLOBE Implementation Office site for more information  
Proposal Deadline: Step 1 Proposals due in October  
Contact: amy.p.chen@nasa.gov (please use subject line: DRAFT A.40 Questions and Comments)

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program is a worldwide science and education program that provides opportunities to better understand, sustain, and improve Earth’s environment at local, regional, and global scales. When it is released in its final form, the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate will solicit proposals through the ROSES-2023 competitive program element A.40 for an organization or a team of multiple organizations to host the GLOBE Implementation Office (GIO) and collaborate with NASA in the implementation of GLOBE, with the objective of strengthening the programmatic support for GLOBE and enhancing the value of GLOBE to its worldwide community of students, educators, scientists, citizen scientists, and partners.

DOE Launches Prize to Jumpstart Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Industry

July 12, 2023

As part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today launched the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize. This $5.1 million competition funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help the United States develop a cost-effective recycling industry for two important of materials used in wind turbines: fiber-reinforced composites and rare earth elements. By helping to create a circular wind energy economy, this prize will increase the sustainability of wind energy and support President Biden’s goals of achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050.  

“We need sustainable and secure domestic wind energy supply chain to achieve our climate goals,” said Alejandro Moreno, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “By creating new cost-effective recycling streams for key wind turbine materials, this prize will help ensure wind energy can continue to rapidly expand across the United States.”

About 85%–90% of the mass of a wind turbine is made of materials that can already be commercially recycled. The bulk of the unrecycled materials is composed of fiber-reinforced composites (carbon fiber and fiberglass). These materials can be found in various forms in wind turbine blades, nacelle covers, and the cover for the hub that connects the blades to the wind turbine. The wind energy industry also depends on critical minerals, such as rare earth elements (including the neodymium and dysprosium magnets used in generators), which do not currently have domestic commercial-scale recycling options.

This prize, which is part of DOE’s American-Made Challenges program, seeks to develop robust domestic recycling options for fiber-reinforced composites and rare earth elements, which can lessen the United States’ need to extract and process raw materials to meet this need. This benefits the environment, makes supply chains more resilient to price volatility and disruption, and reduces dependence on foreign sources of these materials.

Today’s announcement marks the opening of the first of two phases in the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize. In the first phase, Initiate!, DOE invites participants to present innovative technologies that have previously not been applied to recycling of wind energy system materials, as well as technologies that could substantially improve existing wind material recycling processes. During the second phase, Accelerate!, competitors will demonstrate prototypes of their technologies.

The competition is open to private (for-profit and nonprofit) organizations, nonfederal government (such as state, county, tribal, and municipal) entities, academic institutions, and individuals that meet all eligibility requirements listed in the official rules.

Applications for Phase 1 are due on September 29, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET. DOE anticipates awarding $75,000 cash prizes to up to 20 applicants in Phase 1.

Learn more about the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize and register for the informational webinar on August. 3, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. ET

The Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize is led by the Wind Energy Technologies Office in DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Grant Announcement Letter from ORSP

The June issue of the Grant Announcement Letter (GAL) from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP), , as well as the recent issues, are available below

GAL-June-23.pdf

For other recent editions, check Grant Announcement Letter under Categories.