NASA Headquarters Office of Education, Informal Education Division, announces a Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) to provide funding to members of the informal education community to host NASA Explorer Institutes Focus Groups. The purpose of the Focus Groups will be to assemble experts from the informal education community to further identify strategies and approaches that can be used to effectively implement the NASA Explorer Institutes (NEI) Program’s goal and objectives to enhance the capabilities of the informal education community to inspire the next generation of explorers through access to NASA staff, research, technology, information, and/or facilities.
NASA Explorer Institutes, a new national-level program, is intended to provide, "...as only NASA can," engaging experiences, opportunities, materials, and information to members of the informal education community including, but not limited to, representatives of science centers, museums, planetariums, libraries, parks, aquaria, nature centers, botanical gardens, youth groups, and community-based organizations.
More information on NASA Explorer Institutes can be found at http://education.nasa.gov/divisions/informal/overview/F_pathfinder_explorer_institute.html .
NASA anticipates making up to ten awards for conducting NEI Focus Groups at a maximum funding level of $50K per project under this CAN. NASA anticipates awarding the cooperative agreements from this solicitation on or about December 1, 2004. All NEI Focus Group pilot projects must be completed by February 25, 2005 and all final reports are due to NASA’s Informal Education Division by COB March 4, 2005. A NASA Explorer Institutes Planning and Evaluation meeting will be held in New York City on March 16-18, 2005. Each funded project must identify at least one representative who was involved in the development and implementation of their project to participate in the meeting.
This solicitation is open to members of the informal education community. NASA’s participation in each NEI Pilot Focus Group will be critical to assist in the identification of NASA assets and relevant content. A NASA representative will be identified to participate in each focus group selected for funding by the NEI Program Manager in collaboration with the NASA Mission Directorate Education Leads and/or the Field Center Informal Education POCs if a NASA representative is not identified in the proposal.
The anticipated release date of this CAN is September 17, 2004. Proposals must be received by 4:30 PM Eastern Time, November 12, 2004. In addition to paper submission and a complete electronic copy on CD-ROM or ZIP disk, a proposal cover page must be submitted electronically through the SYS-EYFUS system. Electronic submission does not take the place of the required paper submission.
The NEI Focus Groups CAN will be available on the NASA Headquarters Web site: http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_n/nra/current/NNH04ZNI001C/index.html .
The Point of Contact for questions regarding the Cooperative Agreement and the extent of NASA contribution is:
Debbie Gallaway, Program Manager
NASA Explorer Institutes
Informal Education Division
Office of the Chief Education Officer
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20456
Telephone: 202-358-1516
FAX 202-358-3032
E-mail: debbie.gallaway@hq.nasa.gov
This is a broad agency announcement as specified in FAR 6.102 (d) (2).
Notwithstanding the posting of this opportunity at FedBizOpps.gov, Grants.gov, or at both sites, NASA reserves the right to determine the appropriate award instrument for each proposal selected pursuant to this announcement.
