What this program funds
ROSES is not one program — it is NASA's annual omnibus solicitation containing dozens of separate competitions ("program elements") across the Science Mission Directorate: Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, astrophysics, and biological and physical sciences. It funds the research and analysis side of NASA science — analyzing mission data, theory and modeling, laboratory studies, instrument concepts, and fieldwork — as distinct from building missions themselves. Each program element has its own scope, budget norms, due dates, and rules, described in its own appendix.
Eligibility in plain English
- ROSES is unusually open: proposals come through eligible organizations — universities, nonprofits, industry, NASA centers, and other government labs — and the PI needs no particular career stage or job title. Soft-money research scientists routinely lead ROSES awards.
- Non-U.S. researchers can generally participate on a no-exchange-of-funds basis; some elements have additional restrictions.
- Many elements require (or strongly encourage) a Step-1 proposal or notice of intent before the full Step-2 proposal is allowed.
- Individual elements add their own constraints — mission-team membership, data-availability timing, or topic fences — so confirm with your sponsored-programs office and the current omnibus and element appendix.
What you'll need to submit
- Step-1 proposal (where required) — a brief description filed by the element's Step-1 deadline; without it, Step-2 submission is closed.
- Scientific/Technical/Management narrative — the core proposal, with page limits and required content set by the element.
- Budget and budget narrative, including any required table-of-work or personnel details (some divisions handle budgets in a second stage).
- Data Management Plan and, increasingly, open-science documentation.
- Biographical sketches, current-and-pending support, and statements of commitment from co-investigators and collaborators.
- Anonymized proposal formatting where the element uses dual-anonymous peer review.
Tips for this mechanism
- Find your program element first — then read its appendix like a contract. The omnibus sets defaults; element appendices override them, including page limits, budgets, and review style. Most ROSES mistakes are really failures to read the right appendix.
- Never miss a mandatory Step-1. It is typically short and low-effort, but skipping it forfeits the cycle regardless of how strong your Step-2 would have been. Calendar both dates the day the omnibus drops.
- Take dual-anonymous review seriously. Many divisions now review proposals with author identity masked. Learn the anonymizing rules (citing your own work in third person, moving team qualifications to a separate document) — violations can get a proposal returned.
- Check whether your element runs without a fixed due date. Some elements accept proposals year-round, which changes strategy: you can submit when the proposal is ready, but there is no deadline pressure on reviewers either, so plan for variable response times.
Related programs
- NASA FINESST (graduate-student research awards within the same science divisions)
- NASA early-career programs in individual science divisions
- NSF core programs in astronomy, Earth science, and atmospheric and geospace science (overlapping communities, different mission framing)
- NOAA and USGS research programs for Earth-science topics with an operational bent