A variety of factors influence how NASA prioritizes its funding investments and those priorities are expressed in NASA’s solicitations. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Decadal Surveys, science community input (e.g. workshops, white papers, community led roadmaps and strategies), identification of knowledge gaps, new scientific discoveries, and the overall strategy of NASA and the program influence the goals of solicitations, such as Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES). Once the scope of research solicitations have been announced, scientific merit, as advised through the peer review process. helps to identify and prioritize appropriate astrobiology research to select for funding, while also weighing budget, programmatic and other priorities.
NASA supports removing bias from the peer review process and has started to phase in dual-anonymous review. For more information on dual anonymous peer review (DAPR) at NASA, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/dual-anonymous-peer-review.