Current Opportunity
NSF/CASIS 2025 Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology on the ISS
NSF/CASIS Collaboration
Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology on the ISS to Benefit Life on Earth
Welcome to the NSF/CASIS Feasibility Review Form. The International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) National Laboratory is managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space™ (CASIS™(Abbreviation: CASIS™) The nonprofit organization that manages the ISS National Lab, which receives at least 50 percent of the U.S. research allocation on the International Space Station to facilitate research that benefits humanity (NASA manages the other 50% and focuses on research for space exploration purposes).) under a Cooperative AgreementA cooperative agreement is Federal assistance that establishes a relationship between the U.S. Government and a recipient in which the principal purpose of the relationship is to accomplish a public purpose of support or stimulation. Since 2011, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space™ (CASIS™) has managed the National Laboratory® through a Cooperative Agreement with NASA. with NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The Divisions of Chemical, Bioengineering and Environmental Transport (CBET) and Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Infrastructure (CMMI) in the Engineering Directorate of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) are partnering with CASIS to solicit projects in the general fields of tissue engineering and mechanobiology for research that can utilize the ISS National Lab to benefit life on Earth. Only U.S. entities including academic investigators, nonprofit independent research laboratories, and commercial teams are eligible to apply.
NLRAThe abbreviation for an ISS National Lab Research Announcement. NLRAs are one of the ISS National Lab’s primary mechanisms to solicit proposals in specific research areas. / NSF Solicitation #:
NSF 24-513
NLRA Open Period:
11/29/2024 – 3/18/2025
Strategic Focus:
Fundamental Science
Research Area:
Life Science
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli works with the BioFabrication Facility(Abbreviation: BFF) The BFF is a 3D bioprinter on the ISS capable of printing human tissue from bioinks mixed with living cells. This ISS National Lab commercial facility is owned and operated by Redwire Space. on the ISS
Media Credit: NASA
Purpose
The purpose of this solicitation is to attract proposals that make use of the ISS National Lab for flight research projects in the field of biomedical engineering. Responsive proposals will describe how the proposed research will utilize the ISS National Lab for discovery-level and transformative projects that integrate engineering and life sciences.
The two-step proposal process below provides potential offerors with an easy, efficient submission process
For more information on the full proposal, please see NSF Solicitation 24-513.
Steps to Applying for This Research Opportunity
** Please verify that none of the information submitted is subject to the export control laws of the United States, such as the EAR or the ITAR; if any information is subject to such laws, please mark all pages containing such information and identify the appropriate export control jurisdiction and classification. **
All interested offerors must complete and upload a Feasibility Review Form, which can be downloaded below. This form will be reviewed to assess the proposed project’s operational feasibility and terrestrial benefit. We strongly encourage submission of the Feasibility Review Form as early as possible.
Feasibility Review Form submissions are due January 15, 2025. CASIS will respond with the status of the review within four weeks after submission of the form.
Offerors should consult with the ISS National Lab Payload Operations team (NSFCASIS@ISSNationalLab.org) for feedback regarding feasibility and compliance with flight requirements and capabilities.
To upload and submit a Feasibility Review Form, press the “Click to Submit” button below. Please convert your document to a PDF prior to uploading.
To upload and submit a Feasibility Review Form, press the “Click to Submit” button below. Please convert your document to a PDF prior to uploading.
Please note: You will not receive confirmation of receipt of your Feasibility Review Form.
The submission window for full proposals closes on March 18, 2025 .
Offerors who submit Feasibility Review Forms that pass initial review will be invited to submit a full proposal for evaluation by NSF. Documentation from CASIS confirming approval to submit a proposal must be provided when full proposals are submitted to FastLane or Grants.gov.
Offerors will need to work with an Implementation Partner—an organization with experience and expertise in flight payload development and integration. A Statement of Work (SOW) from the offeror’s selected Implementation Partner(Abbreviation: IP) Commercial companies that work with the ISS National Lab to provide services related to payload development, including the translation of ground-based science to a space-based platform. must be included as an appendix to the full proposal.
An acceptable SOW will contain a summary of how the Implementation Partner’s offerings align with the project goals, a detailed scope of end-to-end mission management (concept of operations, hardware availability, verification testing, and hazard identification/safety review approach), a project schedule, and a detailed budget for Implementation Partner costs, including any driving assumptions and detailed costs for modification of hardware. The concept of operations should include an estimate of mass/volume, stowage requirements, power requirements, and crew time with a basis for the estimate.
For more information on the full proposal, please see NSF Solicitation 24-502.
Additional Information
Awardees under this solicitation will need to execute a User Agreement with CASIS in order to conduct research on the ISS. A template agreement has been developed to streamline this process.
Flight Hardware Information
For information regarding existing flight research hardware that may be of interest, please see the ISS Research Facilities Directory. For additional information on past investigations that have been conducted on the ISS, please see NASA’s Space Station Research Explorer and NASA’s Space Station Research Xplorer (SSRX) mobile app.
Offerors are strongly encouraged to use existing flight hardware and facilities rather than propose to develop new platforms. The ISS National Lab Payload Operations team (NSFCASIS@ISSNationalLab.org) is available to answer questions regarding facility availability and current flight capabilities.
Implementation Partners can be a key ally to support and facilitate the translation of ground-based research to flight experiments, and many ISS National Lab facilities are owned and/or operated by Implementation Partners. For a list of Implementation Partners that support research projects on the ISS, please view the ISS National Lab Implementation Partners Directory.
Guidance on Foreign Nationals
Principal and Co-Principal Investigators:
The principal investigator (PI) and any co-principal investigators (Co-PIs) for the proposal are required to be “United States persons” as defined by 22 U.S. Code §6010: “‘United States person’ means any United States citizen or alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States, and any corporation, partnership, or other organization organized under the laws of the United States.”
Other Team Members:
Additional team members on the proposal beyond the PI and Co-PIs are determined strictly at the discretion of the proposing entity. The entity will be fully responsible for compliance with all U.S. export control laws and regulations, including (but not limited to) the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 C.F.R. Parts 120 through 130, and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), 15 C.F.R. Parts 730 through 799. All licensing and other approvals, including identification, classification, and marking of data subject to these regulations, are the responsibility of the proposing entity.
NASA has compiled a list of “Designated Countries” that have additional restrictions imposed. If a member of the team working on the proposal is a citizen of a country on the “Designated Countries List,” the proposing organization is responsible for prior consultation and approval from NASA Export Control and the NASA Office of International and Interagency Relations. CASIS does not get involved in an entity’s export control program, particularly regarding ITAR and EAR. We rely on universities and companies to take all appropriate measures regarding export, including following NASA regulations.
- NASA’s Export Control Program: https://oiir.hq.nasa.gov/nasaecp
- NASA Designated Countries: www.nasa.gov/oiir/export-control
Access to NASA centers and/or NASA IT data systems is limited to United States persons, as defined above.
We thank you for your interest in conducting research leveraging the ISS National Lab! For general questions regarding this solicitation, contact us at info@ISSNationalLab.org.