Roses 2025: A.10 Innovate

NASA's INNOVATE program, formally described as Impactful and novel use of NASA earth observations and models for value-added applications, technology, and societal benefits, is an Earth Science program element designed to rapidly advance the use of satellite observations of Earth in applications that support the U.S. economy, national security, and other topics relevant to NASA's Earth Science to Action Strategy. The program is intended to help projects cross the gap between proof of concept and practical use by end users. It particularly seeks high-risk, high-reward projects that may be too speculative for other funding sources while supporting the emerging space economy and commercial providers of Earth information. Projects must address gaps in NASA Earth Science Division's Earth Action portfolio and must use NASA observation or modeling capabilities. Projects may address areas including agriculture, climate resilience, disasters, ecological conservation, energy, health and air quality, water resources, and wildland fires. Potential capabilities include early warning and forecasting systems, anomaly detection and characterization, and tools for mapping or predicting risks associated with hazards and operational challenges. Activities may have national or international scope and may operate at any spatial scale as long as they address identified end-user needs. Priority may be given to applications relevant to the United States, particularly those supporting economic growth, national security and safety, and rural or marginalized communities. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and other analytics approaches are encouraged where appropriate. Projects must use NASA Earth observations, models, algorithms, airborne products, commercial data available through NASA programs, or other NASA products. Non-NASA data may also be used in conjunction with NASA Earth observations. Projects may receive support for up to three years and up to $1,000,000 overall, subject to successful decisional reviews and the availability of funds. Phase 1 provides up to $200,000 in Year 1 for end-user partnership, project formulation, feasibility assessment, methodology development, and prototyping. Following a successful Year 1 review, Phase 2 provides up to $500,000 in Year 2 for development, implementation, demonstration, integration, testing, verification, and validation in simulated operational environments. Following the Year 2 progress assessment, Phase 3 provides up to $300,000 in Year 3 to operationalize and transition the product or tool into the end user's operational environment and finalize a sustainment plan. The proposal must explain how the resulting output will be supported beyond the NASA award period, with long-term support sought from non-NASA sources. Cost sharing is not required, although voluntary and in-kind contributions are permitted and are not evaluation factors. Except for stated exclusions, organizations of every type, domestic and foreign, governmental and private, for-profit and nonprofit, may submit proposals. Non-U.S. organizations may participate on a no-exchange-of-funds basis. Federal agencies other than NASA and federally funded research and development centers other than JPL will not receive funding, although team members from other government agencies may participate without NASA funding. Companies currently under contract through NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program are ineligible. There is no restriction on the number of proposals an organization or investigator may submit. Each proposal must identify at least one end-user organization with a specific decision-making need and authority to act on the decision, and an end-user representative must participate as a Co-Investigator or Collaborator throughout the project. Before preparing a proposal, applicants must communicate with Program Officer Nima Pahlevan to confirm that their concept meets programmatic needs and is eligible. Concepts within the scope of another ROSES-25 element or redundant with currently funded projects are not eligible. Submission is electronic through NSPIRES, with Grants.gov availability possible only upon advance request to the program contact. A notice of intent is not required. The submission includes an anonymized proposal containing an anonymized slide deck brief of up to 10 slides followed by a five-page Science, Technical, and Management section, along with references, an anonymized Open Science and Data Management Plan of up to two pages, an anonymized personnel and work-effort table, and an anonymized budget justification. Separately uploaded non-anonymized materials include the required total budget and the required Expertise and Resources Not Anonymized document containing personnel and work effort, biographical sketches, current and pending support, team expertise and past performance, and other applicable materials. Letters from end-user organizations are recommended but not required. An optional High-End Computing request may also be submitted when applicable. Proposals are evaluated through dual-anonymous peer review using intrinsic merit, relevance, and cost reasonableness. The Open Science and Data Management Plan is evaluated as part of merit. NASA may return or decline proposals based on internal review with limited feedback. Projects that receive awards are expected to begin work immediately upon availability of funds and deliver value incrementally and frequently. Very brief quarterly reports are required. Toward the end of Year 1, teams undergo a key decision point review addressing the prototype, integration into end-user decision making, scalability, transferability, impact, continuation, and sustainment. A second decisional progress assessment occurs at the end of Year 2. At Year 3 closeout, the end-user partner must endorse the application system based on improved operations and decision making. Proposals may be submitted at any time through 11:59 PM Eastern time on August 31, 2026. The June 4, 2026 notice states that proposals received after close of business July 6, 2026 will be considered for funding only after October 1, 2026. The planned investigation start is approximately 12 weeks after submission, subject to funding availability. The maximum award duration is three years and continuation after Years 1 and 2 depends on successful decisional review. No recurring annual or other future submission cycle is stated. Questions about the program may be directed to Nima Pahlevan, Earth Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, at nima.pahlevan@nasa.gov or 202-294-3954. NSPIRES technical assistance is available at nspires-help@nasaprs.com or 202-479-9376.

Contact the Program Officer before investing significant effort to ensure the concept is eligible and aligned with programmatic needs. Clearly identify an end-user organization and its decision-making challenge, demonstrate novelty and near-term impact, use NASA Earth observations or modeling capabilities, and explain scalability and transferability. Provide a credible plan for sustained use and operation beyond the NASA award using non-NASA support. Follow dual-anonymous review instructions carefully, including anonymizing the proposal summary, slide deck, S/T/M section, OSDMP, personnel table, and budget justification while placing identifying information in the separate Expertise and Resources Not Anonymized document. Address merit, relevance, and cost reasonableness, and show how the project can deliver incremental value to the end user.