Higher Education and Faculty Research Support

Application for these programs generally consists of a letter of request, a project description highlighting the potential significance to NASA's enterprises, and a budget indicating evidence of matching funds.

Faculty Curriculum Development Program

Financial support that allows faculty to explore and develop new curriculum for new NASA-related courses.

Space Grant has supported and continues to support faculty at the RI School of Design's Industrial Design Department for their course on Design for Extreme Environments. Space Grant supported a pilot undergraduate course at Brown University dealing with global remote sensing funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trust Foundation (through a special R.I. Space Grant Fellow) and contributed to curriculum development of computer teaching/exercise modules for problems in global remote sensing. Space Grant also contributed to a joint Brown/University of Rhode Island graduate seminar series on the consequences of the Chicxulub impact on climate change and life history.

Research Enhancement

The RI Space Grant Program is based on the premise that research support can go hand-in-hand with science education. In addition to funding Fellows and Scholars research, we have special programs for short-term research enhancement of special projects. It is hoped that the research supported by seed money provided by the NASA RI Space Grant consortium will ultimately be leveraged into a full NASA grant.

Graduate Student Research Enhancement Program

Allows graduate students to work on specific faculty research for which their faculty advisor has no other funds or support. Research must be space-related. Support is typically limited to 2 months (evidence for matching funds required).

Faculty Research Enhancement Program

Designed to enable faculty to work on specific research for which no other funds or support are available. Research must be space-related and support is limited (evidence for matching funds required).

Visiting Lecturers Program

Enhances the number of visiting lecturers that can be brought to RI campuses by contributing co-funding with other departments or university groups to make it possible for top science lecturers to come to the university.

NASA/Industry Partnership Program

Encourages projects that exploit NASA perspectives, develop new approaches, or explore emerging technologies. Requires matching money.

Contact the NASA RI Space Grant Consortium office for more information.