Amendment 8: New TBD C.23 Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research

ROSES-2019 Amendment 8 releases a placeholder for a new program element: C.23 Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (ICAR).

The Planetary Science Division intends to solicit Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (ICAR) to support the goal of the NASA's Astrobiology program in the study of the origins, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe. It is anticipated that research areas in this cycle will include: prebiotic chemistry and early Earth environments, early life and increasing complexity, and the habitability and biosignatures on exoplanets. PIs selected as a result of proposals to this program element will become members of the newly established Astrobiology Program Research Coordination Networks that are relevant to their selected research.

The Planetary Science Division intends to solicit ICAR proposals every other year, either as a program element in ROSES-2019 or as a separate Cooperative Agreement Notice. Either way, it is expected that the final text will be released in NSPIRES no fewer than 90 days prior to the full or Step-2 proposal due date.

On or about May 6, 2019 this placeholder program element will appear with due dates as TBD in Tables 2 and 3 of ROSES-2019 at http://solicitation.nasaprs.com/ROSES2019table2 and http://solicitation.nasaprs.com/ROSES2019table3, respectively.

The point of contact for this program element is Mary Voytek, who may be reached at mary.voytek-1@nasa.gov.