MOSAICS – formerly known as the SMD Bridge Program – Latest Updates
Deadline extended to 12/9 for feedback on DRAFT Five-Year Collaboration Awards text to encourage more feedback!
November 21, 2024
On September 19th, 2024, DRAFT text for F.18 MOSAICS 5-Year Collaboration Awards was Released for Community Comment. We want to hear from a wide array of potential proposers and current participants on all aspects of the draft call. To make sure more people have an opportunity to take a look at the call and provide comments to us, we have delayed the deadline to receive comments from 11/22/24 to 12/9/24.
When it is solicited, F.18 Mentorship and Opportunities in STEM with Academic Institutions for Community Success (MOSAICS) Five-Year Collaboration Awards will solicit proposals for up to five years of funding to support longer-term research and mentoring collaborations between scientists and engineers at NASA Centers or Facilities and faculty at institutions historically underfunded by NASA. Three funding categories are available: Small, Medium, and Large, corresponding up to ~$200,000/year, ~$500,000/year, and ~$1M/year, respectively, including indirect costs.
While comments on any aspect of the draft are welcome, we especially encourage feedback on: the proposal schedule, including deadline; the funding categories and the plan to not use Dual Anonymous Peer Review (DAPR) when evaluating proposals.
Comments and questions concerning this draft are now due by December 9, 2024 either anonymously via the Google form at https://forms.gle/5CgoYNdazEEfRSoW6 or via email to hq-smd-bridge@mail.nasa.gov with the subject line "Feedback on ROSES-2024 F.18 DRAFT".
MOSAICS Seed Funding: proposal cut-off date extended to October 11, 2024!
All proposals received by this date will be included in the Winter 2025 review. Anticipated start dates for these awards are March-May, 2025.
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Our team has an exciting lineup this fall of events and opportunities! Please see the below information for updates.
September 23, 2024
1. ROSES-2024 Seed Funding:
An opportunity to apply for seed funding through ROSES-2024 Appendix F.20 is now open until March 28, 2025. We encourage proposers to submit by September 30, 2024 to be included in our first review of proposals.
2. MOSAICS Office Hours webinar:
We will be hosting two office hour webinars on MOSAICS Seed Funding (ROSES-2024 F.20) These will be held Tuesday, September 24, 2024 1:00 PM | (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) and Friday, September 27, 2024 1:00 PM | (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Register link for September 24th:
https://nasaevents.webex.com/weblink/register/r044782caf3f28540ecd4e85853417d1f
Register link for September 27th:
https://nasaevents.webex.com/weblink/register/rca9c92e4450e100ed6cf6a50b435e6ba
3. Where to find us this fall
As we are approaching the fall season, we are getting ready for many in person and interactive events. Please refer to the list below.
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference. October 31st- November 2nd, Phoenix, Arizona https://www.sacnas.org
The Joint National Society of Black Physicists and National Society of Hispanic Physicists 2024 conference. November 13th-17, Houston, TX. https://hispanicphysicists.org/jointmeeting/
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual meeting. December 9th-13th, Washington, DC. https://www.agu.org/annual-meeting
MOSAICS end of summer updates!
September 3, 2024
The summer months have been a busy yet exciting time for the MOSAICS program. Please see the below information for updates.
1. ROSES-2023 Seed Funding Awards
The final projects have been selected for awards through ROSES-2023 Appendix F.23, MOSAICS Seed Funding, and we’re excited to welcome 20 new teams into the MOSAICS-formerly known as the SMD Bridge Program- tapestry. This third cohort brings the total number of projects funded to 44 teams at 36 academic institutions in 21 U.S. states and territories, including Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, in collaboration with seven NASA centers. To learn more about the newly selected projects, check out the NASA press feature NASA Funds Research Projects Advancing STEM Career Development, released on August 14th. Good luck to everyone selected for seed funding, and we look forward to watching your collaborations grow!
2. Apply now for ROSES-2024 Seed Funding!
A new opportunity to apply for seed funding through ROSES-2024 Appendix F.20 is now open until March 28, 2025. We encourage proposers to submit by September 30, 2024 to be included in our first review of proposals.
3. Slides from our August 12 Town Hall Available
On August 12th, 2024, the MOSAICS team hosted a town hall where the MOSAICS team updated the community on the status of the program, including sharing an overview of the inaugural teams selected for seed funding in ROSES-2023, and plans for ROSES-2024 and 2025. Please click here to access the slides from the town hall.
MOSAICS Town Hall Webinar Monday, August 12 at 2:00pm Eastern Time
July 24, 2024
Registration for a Town Hall for MOSAICS (Mentoring and Opportunities in STEM with Academic Institutions for Community Success)– formerly known as the SMD Bridge Program, is now open. The Town Hall will be held on August 12, 2024, starting at 2:00PM Eastern time, via Webex. Registration is required, so please use the registration link: https://nasaevents.webex.com/weblink/register/r52c04ae1943694c7e1e9a5616d38b89f
During the Town Hall, the MOSAICS team will update the community on the status of the program, including sharing an overview of the inaugural teams selected for seed funding in ROSES-2023, and plans for ROSES-2024 and 2025. The MOSAICS team will discuss the call for MOSAICS Seed Funding (MSF) proposals, F.20 in ROSES-2024, currently accepting proposals. This “no fixed due date” ROSES element funds faculty and their students at emerging research institutions who seek to create new connections or strengthen their existing collaborations with NASA science and engineering researchers. We are also looking for reviewers to serve on our review panels. Interested reviewers can sign up here. The Town Hall is also an opportunity for the community to provide feedback and ask questions. The second half of the Town Hall will be devoted to a Meet and Greet for current program participants and is closed to the public.
The team will use NASA’s Social Q&A IO tool to capture questions before and during the town hall. To anonymously ask or upvote questions go to https://nasa.cnf.io/sessions/kmhp/#!/dashboard. All entries are anonymous. Participants can up-vote questions by clicking/tapping the arrow next to the question.
We expect to hold office hours from 1-3 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday September 24 and Friday September 27, 2024, as well as Thursday March 20 and Wednesday March 26, 2025, to support proposers. More information about these events, including links to attend, will be posted under “Other Documents” on the NSPIRES page for this program element, and made available on the SMD Bridge Website at https://science.nasa.gov/smd-bridge-program once they are scheduled.
Questions and requests for reasonable accommodations for the Town Hall/Meet and Greet can be sent to hq-smd-bridge@mail.nasa.gov.
We’ve changed our name to MOSAICS! A new name to more accurately capture the broad goals of our program
June 7, 2024
Since its initiation, one of the core tenets has been to co-create this program with the community of potential collaborators. Our community workshop held in October 2022 uncovered powerful themes at a variety of under-resourced institutions (URI) and suggested ways that the program could support faculty, students and increasing research capacity at URIs. The central importance of strong, positive mentorship as a key component of retaining students and early career professionals in STEM was also emphasized. We received feedback from the community that the term “Bridge” does not fully capture the goals and scope of our program. For example:
- most existing Bridge programs accept applications from individual students, while our program requires proposals led by faculty members, with a NASA collaborator
- the goal of most Bridge programs is to foster persistence, career development, academic advancement and skills-building in students. Our program goals include these but are broader, and center increasing long-term collaborations between NASA and under-resourced institutions, including both their faculty and their students
Some members of our workshop organizing committee undertook an investigation and recommended our program not use the word “Bridge” but to select a name that will “…more accurately reflect the full range of access points the program will offer.”
After many iterations of possible choices, we’re excited to unveil our new name: MOSAICS! Mentoring Opportunities in STEM with Academic Institutions for Community Success.
What’s in a name (or acronym):
MOSAICS are created from many smaller elements, resulting in works that are greater than the sum of their parts
Every letter in our name captures one of our main goals.
- Leads with Mentoring
- Offers and Expands Funded Research Opportunities
- Covers SMD-relevant STEM topics
- Academic Institutions are key collaborators
- Defines Community Success via the shared goals of URI faculty, students and NASA collaborators
What to expect:
Future calls for proposals will first be introduced in ROSES-2024 with the phrase “MOSAICS —formerly known as the SMD Bridge Program”, to avoid confusion and to take advantage of the “brand identity” that “the SMD Bridge Program” currently enjoys. Calls for proposals appearing in ROSES-2025 and later will refer to the program simply as MOSAICS.
MOSAICS has a vibrant future ahead:
We’ll select our final teams as part of the inaugural cohort from ROSES-2023 Seed Funding call later this summer. Additional seed funding teams will be selected throughout calendar years 2024 and 2025 through a ROSES-2024 call (F.20 MOSAICS Seed Funding). See the NSPIRES page for F.20 for more information on how to propose. A draft call for proposals for MOSAICS Five-Year Collaboration Awards will be publicly released in Summer of 2024 and remain open for public comment through Fall 2024. We want your feedback before we release the first call for MOSAICS Five-Year Collaboration Awards in February 2025 as part of ROSES-2025. The deadlines for ROSES-2024 F.20 MOSAICS Seed Funding proposals are September 30, 2024 and March 28, 2025. Between now and then we’ll schedule office hours and other ways to engage in person or virtually. We welcome your feedback and questions. Please reach out to hq-smd-bridge@mail.nasa.gov
Questions about the SMD Bridge Program should be directed to Padi Boyd (padi.boyd@nasa.gov) and please cc SARA@nasa.gov.
