Research Opportunities in Materials Science - MaterialsLab Open Science Campaigns for Experiments on the International Space Station

the following steps: 1. Open the NSPIRES homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ 2. Select "Solicitations" 3. Select "Open Solicitations” 4. Select "Research Opportunities in Materials Science NNH15ZTT002N” 5. Select “Research Opportunities in Materials Science NNH15ZTT002N" under Announcement Documents. NASA's Physical Sciences Research Program conducts fundamental and applied physical sciences research, with the objective of enabling improved space systems and technological advances that support new products and other benefits on Earth. NASA's experiments in the various disciplines of physical science reveal how physical systems respond to the near absence of gravity. They also reveal how other forces that on Earth are small, as compared to gravity, can dominate system behavior in space. This NASA Research Announcement (NRA) solicits materials science research proposals to define broadly scoped investigations to be conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The research will be conducted as part of the NASA Physical Sciences MaterialsLab Open Science Campaign. Proposers are expected to define high-content experiments that explore a broad range of questions and gather a significant amount of data. These data will be made available to the global community of researchers through the NASA Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) system (http://psi.nasa.gov ). This NRA solicits research proposals in the following four themes: 1) Thermophysical Property Measurements; 2) Materials Processes Affecting Microstructure, Composition, and the Resultant Material Characteristics; 3) Biophysics, specifically the Biomaterials and Biofilms subthemes; and 4) Liquid Crystals Research Using a Modified OASIS Experiment. Selected investigators will be assigned by NASA to a Science Definition Team by NASA that may include investigators from other selected proposals that provide complementary expertise to the investigation being conducted. This solicitation is applicable to researchers in all categories of U.S. and non-U.S. organizations, including educational institutions, industry, nonprofit organizations, NASA Centers and other U.S. Government agencies. Proposals including international participation are eligible, provided NASA policies regarding the conduct of research with non-U.S. organizations are met. Proposals solicited through this NRA will use a two-step proposal process. Step-1 proposals are required and shall be submitted by October 29, 2015. Step-1 proposals will be reviewed at NASA for relevance to the Research Emphases outlined in the NRA and for consistency with the Science Definition Team requirements described in the NRA. Proposers whose proposals are evaluated to be relevant will be invited to submit full Step-2 proposals. Step-2 proposals must be submitted by January 14, 2016. Proposals must be submitted by an authorized official of the proposing organization. Proposals must be submitted electronically. Proposers may use either NSPIRES (http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ ) or Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov ) for Step-1 proposal submission; invited Step-2 proposals must be submitted via NSPIRES for proposal submission. Every organization that intends to submit a proposal in response to this NRA must be registered with NSPIRES, and such registration must identify the authorized organization representative(s) who will submit the electronic proposal. Instructions on how to register in NSPIRES are provided in the NRA. Lead proposers and other participants (e.g., co-investigators) must be registered in NSPIRES . Potential proposers and proposing organizations are urged to access the system(s) well in advance of the proposal due date(s) to familiarize themselves with its structure and enter the requested information. Questions with regard to responding to this NRA may be addressed to the contacts referenced in the full solicitation document. This is a broad agency announcement as specified in FAR 6.102 (d)(2). Notwithstanding the posting of this opportunity at FedBizOpps.gov, nspires.nasaprs.com, or Grants.gov, NASA reserves the right to determine the appropriate award instrument for each proposal selected pursuant to this announcement.