NAI Announces 2008 Director's Discretionary Fund Awards

The NASA Astrobiology Institute is pleased to announce the selection of 18 proposals for support through the 2008 NAI Director’s Discretionary Fund. These awards allocate more than $1.4M toward strategic investments that advance the science of astrobiology, demonstrate impact to NASA’s space flight programs or its broader science activities, and/or contribute to NASA’s role as a federal R&D agency. The members of the Institute, in collaboration with members of the larger astrobiology community, responded to this year’s DDF Call for Proposals with a bold, interdisciplinary, and focused set of proposals.

In making selections, priority was given to proposals that are characterized by one or more of the following:

• Directly support flight programs, particularly through instrument development
• Expand the scope of NAI research (and the NAI community) in innovative ways, accepting some risk in return for high pay-off potential
• Respond in a timely way to new scientific results or programmatic opportunities
• Use funding particularly effectively, for example through leveraging or building on past investments

For more information and to view the list of selected proposals: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/funding/the-nai-directors-discretionary-fund/ [Source: NAI Newsletter]