Faculty REAP applications are due by midnight, January 27, 2025. APPLY HERE: REAP Applications

*Please note that REAP funds will be for a 12-month period in this cycle. Plan for your award period to be April 15, 2025 – April 14, 2026.

The REAP will provide support for faculty members and/or students at SCSGC member institutions, particularly for the development of contacts and collaborations that will bring South Carolina faculty into the mainstream of research activity, thereby increasing their chances for successfully competing in the research and education marketplace.

The overall goal of REAP is to effectively utilize the SCSGC resources: 1) to develop new research projects or directions, 2) to obtain unique training and exposure, and 3) to foster collaborations among the campuses, as well as with NASA and/or other federal agencies and the aerospace industry, in general.

    • There are 4 subprograms with the SCSGC Research and Education Awards Program. You may apply to more than one subprogram, but only once for each subprogram.
    • The RESEARCH FACILITATION AWARD SUBPROGRAM is intended to provide faculty members with research support for NASA-related activities, such as (but not limited to) initiating a research project, enhancing an existing research activity, supporting a graduate student to join a faculty member at a field center for part of a summer term, developing a new research project among scientists at several SCSGC campuses, or providing faculty summer support at facilities not covered by existing programs. While this award is open for any proposals between $5,000-$20,000, justification must be provided through thoughtful proposals and meaningful budgets. $5,000-$20,000
      • *Undergraduate and/or Graduate student participation is now a requirement of this subprogram. Please include support for their involvement within your budgets.
    • The EDUCATION RESEARCH AWARD is intended to provide faculty members with research support for science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM)-related activities, such as (but not limited to) initiating an education research project, enhancing an existing education research activity, supporting a graduate student to join a faculty member at a field center for part of a summer term to help with the education research project, developing a new education research project among scientists at several SCSGC campuses, or providing faculty summer support at facilities not covered by existing programs. $8,000
      • *Undergraduate and/or Graduate student participation is now a requirement of this subprogram. Please include support for their involvement within your budgets.
    • The CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AWARD SUBPROGRAM will provide funds for faculty members to develop coursework or education materials for all education levels (k-12, undergraduate and/or graduate level courses), related to the fields of science and engineering. $4,000
    • The TRAVEL AWARD SUBPROGRAM will provide funds for faculty members and students to make short trips to visit federal facilities (especially NASA facilities), to meet with international groups or other Space Grant campuses and to a lesser extent to present results at professional meetings. Proposals that are submitted to this program must demonstrate the need for, and expected benefit to, the research/training of the applicant. $2,000

ELIGIBILITY
Faculty affiliated with a SCSGC Member Campus or Educational Partner are eligible to apply. In cases where support is requested for a student (undergraduate/graduate), he/she must be a U.S. Citizen. In cases where support is requested for a visiting scientist, the application must be submitted by, and be the responsibility of a faculty member at a SCSGC university.

*SCSGC cannot provide funds to non-US citizen faculty in the form of salary or travel. A non-US citizen may apply for our programs as a PI or as a Co-PI if all SCSGC funds support the research of US citizens (faculty or students). Non-US citizens may receive support from their universities and these funds may be used as part of the 1:1 matching cost-share required for the grant.

COST SHARING AND ALLOWABLE COSTS
The Consortium is required to match NASA 1:1. Therefore, applicants will be required to match 100% of their requested funds with non-federal funds from their institution. Match can be in the form of either hard money matches or in-kind matches, including waived indirect costs, academic release for faculty members, student stipends, instrument and computer time. As per SCSGC policy, SCSGC funds cannot be used for indirect costs and overhead charges. Applications solely for the acquisition of equipment cannot be funded. Based on the federal grant requirement (reference 2 CFR 200.306(b)(4), then 2 CFR 200.403(b), non-citizens’ salary is unallowable as cost-share as the federal award will not fund non-citizen’s salary.

Other funding restrictions include international travel, “equipment” purchases and computers.

*Please note that award dates for this program will be April 15, 2025 – April 14, 2026 and that you will NOT be eligible to request a No-Cost Extension, based on new NASA regulations. Please plan to complete your project within the award dates.

Application Requirements:

1. Fully Signed SCSGC REAP Cover Page – click to Download: REAP Cover Page

2. Research Proposal Components (Research Facilitation proposals may have up to 5 pages; Education Research, Curriculum Development and Travel proposals may have up to 3 pages.) You MUST follow the formatting and justification guidelines below. Non-Compliant proposals will not be considered.

a.Project abstract – no longer than 250 words.

b. NASA Relevance
c. Clear demonstration of how the proposed effort will support NASA’s Research Priorities for NASA Mission Directorates and Centers (see NASA’s Strategic Plan below) and address our SC jurisdiction’s research priorities (see SC Vision 2030 below).
d. Research Questions
e. Nature of Student Activities
f. Competency of the project personnel with emphasis on the potential degree of enhancement and the probability the project will lead to further funded work
g. Overall utility and relevance to SCSGC research development objectives
h. Project Evaluation and Reporting

i. Project Timeline
*References, CVs, current and pending support forms, and the budget and justification are outside of the page limits.

3. Budget and Budget Justification (USE NASA BUDGET TEMPLATE) *YOUR BUDGET PAGE MUST BE SIGNED BY YOU AND YOUR INSTITUTIONAL OFFICIAL!

4. Current and Pending Support Form

5. Letters of support may be included, but are not required.

6. PI Curriculum Vitae (limited to 2 pages)

7. Co-I(s) Curriculum Vitae (limited to 1 page each)

Proposal Formatting Guidelines:

• Must be single-space, in English, use a font of at least 12 point (no more than ~15 characters per inch horizontally and 5.5 lines per inch vertically),
• Must use standard 1” margins on all sides.
• 10 mb file size max for each proposal, must be an unlocked and searchable pdf file

Budget Justification Guidelines:

• Must describe the basis of estimate and rationale for each proposed component of cost for each year of the proposal.
• Travel must be broken down by number of travelers, number of days, conference fees, airfare, per diem, misc. expenses, etc.
• Printing costs should be broken down by the number of pages and cost per page, as well as the title of journal (best estimate).

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
A one-page annual report of your project will be due in July of the following year. This will include completing a standard project report that is required by NASA. Additionally, the SCSGC reserves the right to review projects and/or require additional reports whenever such actions are deemed necessary or are requested by sources supporting the SCSGC (NASA and the Board of Directors).

  • title of project
  • project results/expectations
  • funds allocated and how they were spent
  • Personnel information—numbers, gender distribution and ethnic distribution of faculty, post-docs, graduate students, undergraduate students and any other participants, as required by NASA
  • Student participation chart (see website for chart)
  • conference presentations, publications, patents
  • other grant awards and/or proposals as a result of the grant award
  • New technology of intellectual property as a result of your project
  • improvements in State Research and Development Infrastructure

Important download links for your proposals:

REAP Cover Page
NASA Research Focus Areas – 2023
SC Science &Technology Plan-Vision 2030
NASA Mission Directorates
NASA 2018 Strategic Plan
NASA Areas of Interest by Mission Directorate
Blank Budget
Equal Opportunity Form

For questions or more information, please contact: Ms. Tara B. Scozzaro, MPA, SC Space Grant and SC NASA EPSCoR Program Manager
phone: 843.953.5463 | email: scozzarot@cofc.edu