Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP)

NAI Announces 2008 Director's Discretionary Fund Awards

July 17, 2008 / Posted by: Marco Boldt

The NASA Astrobiology Institute is pleased to announce the selection of 18 proposals for support through the 2008 NAI Director’s Discretionary Fund. These awards allocate more than $1.4M toward strategic investments that advance the science of astrobiology, demonstrate impact to NASA’s space flight programs or its broader science activities, and/or contribute to NASA’s role as a federal R&D agency. The members of the Institute, in collaboration with members of the larger astrobiology community, responded to this year’s DDF Call for Proposals with a bold, interdisciplinary, and focused set of proposals.

In making selections, priority was given to proposals that are characterized by one or more of the following:

• Directly support flight programs, particularly through instrument development
• Expand the scope of NAI research (and the NAI community) in innovative ways, accepting some risk in return for high pay-off potential
• Respond in a timely way to new scientific results or programmatic opportunities
• Use funding particularly effectively, for example through leveraging or building on past investments

For more information and to view the list of selected proposals, click here.