Archived 2020 FAQ
This was the FAQ for ROSES-2020. For the current FAQs on the current ROSES see https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/faqs
What's new in ROSES-2020? How does it differ from prior ROSES?
This year ROSES will employ "dual-anonymous peer review" (DAPR) for the evaluation of proposals submitted to select program elements (A.30 Earth Science USPI, B.4 HGIO, E.4 HW, and D.2 ADAP and the Astrophysics GI/GO programs). Any program element that is using DAPR will 1) clearly indicate that this is the case in the call, 2) contain a special section with detailed instructions about how to prepare proposals, 3) link to a special web FAQ on this subject, and 4) the NSPIRES page of any program using DAPR will host "Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals" under "Other documents". More information regarding the preparation and evaluation of anonymous proposals is given in Sections IV(b)i and VI(b) of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation. Moreover, two Virtual town halls on DAPR will be hosted by SMD: The first, focused on the implementation DAPR for Astrophysics GO/GI programs that use the two-phase submission process will be February 27 at 1:00 pm Eastern Time and connection information may be found here. The second, about the implementation of DAPR to the four more conventional ROSES elements (A.30 Earth Science USPI, B.4 HGIO, E.4 HW, and D.2 ADAP) will be March 3, 2020 at 12:30 pm Eastern Time. Connection information may be found at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/grant-solicitations under the heading "Community Announcements" and the entry "Virtual Town Hall on Dual-Anonymous Peer Review".
Starting in ROSES-2020, unless the program element states otherwise, the sufficiency of the data management plan will be evaluated and will have a bearing on whether or not the proposal is selected, see Section II(c) of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation and the ROSES FAQ on DMPs at http://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/faqs/dmp-faq-roses/.
Starting in 2020, SMD will initiate a multi-year stepwise transition to implement the National Academy's recommendations in their report "Best Practices for a Future Open Code Policy for NASA". This year this includes:
- Two new cross division program elements to enable public access: E.7 Support for Open-Source Software Tools, Frameworks, and Libraries and E.8 Supplemental Open-Source Software Awards and
- SMD has made uniform across all of ROSES the expectations regarding data and software, both to emphasize its importance and to simplify life for proposers as unified data policies better enable cross-disciplinary proposals. Text describing the now uniform ROSES approach on data and software may be found in the Division Overviews (i.e., A.1, B.1, C.1…).
In ROSES-2020 SMD will collect information from proposers and reviewers to assess (intellectual) risk and impact of ROSES proposals and the Associate Administrator will assemble a special panel to take a second look at select high-risk high-impact proposals that were not selected for funding through the normal review process. For more information see Section VI(b) of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation.
In Appendix A (Earth Science) a new call for members of a science team for the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) instrument on the International Space Station (ISS) will be solicited as program element A.8. Moreover, A.30 The Earth Science U.S. Participating Investigator program will evaluate proposals using "dual-anonymous peer review", see the DAPR FAQ and Sections IV(b)i and VI(b) of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation. The Ecological Forecasting call (having not been solicited since 2016) has returned as A.39. Please note that this element is unique in requiring cost sharing. Finally, more program elements than ever before in Appendix A (e.g., A.7, A.8, A.14, A.17 A.26, A.38, & A.39) are requiring that proposers use the Earth Science standard templates for the Table of Work Effort and Current and Pending Support, please see Section IV(b)iii of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation and the "SARA" web page where these templates may be downloaded.
In Appendix B (Heliophysics) new opportunities for GOLD/ICON Guest Investigators and Parker Solar Probe Guest Investigators will be solicited as program elements B.15 and B.16, respectively. In addition, Heliophysics Flight Opportunities for Research and Technology (H-FORT) has been split into three separate program elements for improved clarity: Low Cost Access to Space (B.9), Flight Opportunities Studies (B.10), and the remaining SmallSats and Rideshare Opportunities (B.11) that retains the name H-FORT. Finally, program element B.4, Heliophysics Guest Investigators-Open will evaluate proposals using "dual-anonymous peer review", see the DAPR FAQ and Sections IV(b)i and VI(b) of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation.
In Appendix C (Planetary Science) new participating scientist programs for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission and the MOMA instrument on the ExoMars rover will be solicited as program elements C.21 and C.25, respectively. A program element for Radioisotope Power Systems Technology is planned for C.22, and what was Near-Earth Objects has been renamed Yearly Opportunities for Research in Planetary Defense (C.24).
In Appendix D (Astrophysics) a new program element for Guest Scientists for the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is planned for this year in D.12, Astrophysics Explorers U.S. Participating Investigators returns in D.13 and Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics Networks returns in D.14. Finally, all Astrophysics GO/GI programs and D.2 Astrophysics Data Analysis will evaluate proposals using "dual-anonymous peer review", see the DAPR FAQ and Sections IV(b)i and VI(b) of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation.
To Appendix E (Cross Division) three new opportunities will be added this year: E.6, the Science Activation Program Integration, E.7 Support for Open Source Software Tools, Frameworks, and Libraries and E.8 Supplemental Open Source Software Awards. The graduate student research program Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST), that was added to ROSES last year continues as program element E.5. Finally, Habitable Worlds (E.4) will evaluate proposals using "dual-anonymous peer review", see the DAPR FAQ and Sections IV(b)i and VI(b) of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation.
Other changes will occur throughout the year announced by Amendments, corrections, and clarifications. If you have not done so already, please consider subscribing to:
- The SMD mailing lists (by logging in at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ and checking the appropriate boxes under "Account Management" and "Email Subscriptions"),
- The ROSES-2020 RSS feed for amendments, clarifications, and corrections at http://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/grant-solicitations/ROSES-2020/, and
- The ROSES-2020 due date Google calendars. Instructions are at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/library-and-useful-links.
The 2020 version of the Guidebook will not be out at the time of the release of ROSES-2020 and we are not sure when it will be released. It is not anticipated that there will be any significant changes to the Guidebook between the 2018 and 2020 versions, but just to avoid any ambiguity, the 2018 version of the Guidebook is the one that applies to all proposals until ROSES-2020 is amended to indicate that the new guidebook is in force.
Section II.(c) of the ROSES-20 Summary of solicitation on increasing access to the results of federally funded research links to the Federal Register notice, specifies that manuscripts are to be deposited within one year, and notes that failure to do so "may delay or prevent awarding of funds."
The restrictions involving China persist, please see https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/faqs/prc-faq-roses/
If you are looking for the FAQ for ROSES-2019 (e.g., because you are preparing a proposal for one of the few ROSES-2019 program elements due in early calendar 2020) you may view the archived ROSES-2019 FAQ at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/faqs/archived-2019-faq/
