Win NASA ROSES Research Grants for Space and Earth Science: How to Find the Right Call and Apply (Ongoing Deadlines)

NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) is a recurring Science Mission Directorate solicitation for research connected to NASA’s science programs. It is useful, but it is easy to misunderstand: ROSES is an omnibus announcement, not a single grant competition with one application form, one award ceiling, or one universal deadline.

The current official solicitation is ROSES-2025. NASA released it on July 10, 2025, and its program elements cover Earth science, heliophysics, planetary science, astrophysics, biological and physical sciences, and cross-division research. NASA’s funding page identifies ROSES-2025 as the current omnibus research opportunity and says that ROSES-25 remains open through August 2026 while ROSES-26 is anticipated in July 2026. As of this check, NASA has not published a separate ROSES-2026 solicitation, so this page does not present that future cycle as open. The practical consequence is important: there is no single ROSES deadline to copy into a general guide. You must select a program element and use that element’s own table entry and solicitation text.

Current status at a glance

What ROSES actually funds

ROSES supplies the umbrella under which NASA publishes many separate research opportunities. A program element may seek analysis of NASA mission data, laboratory or observational work, modeling, instrument or technology development, data products, open-source research tools, science teams, or another activity described in its own text. The broad subject matter is not enough to establish fit. A project about satellites, astronomy, climate, planets, or space biology still has to match the objectives and limits of a particular element.

The official NSPIRES summary describes ROSES-2025 as an omnibus NASA Research Announcement containing about 35 proposal opportunities. Table 2 orders those opportunities by proposal due date, and Table 3 orders them by appendix number. Each row links to the program element or research overview that controls the actual competition. The summary of solicitation supplies common requirements, but an individual program element can add restrictions, required preliminary submissions, special review rules, page limits, or budget instructions. When the two documents differ, read the element-specific instructions carefully.

There is no honest single award amount for this page. NASA does not publish one ROSES-wide check size because an astrophysics analysis proposal, an Earth science application, a research initiation award, and a multi-institution technology project have different cost structures. Treat the budget in the selected element as authoritative. A request should be tied to the personnel, facilities, travel, computing, subawards, data, and other work that the project actually needs. Unless the element says otherwise, NASA expects costs to be represented in the NSPIRES web budget and in the separately uploaded Total Budget PDF.

Who may apply

Eligibility is program-element specific, so do not treat this page as a substitute for the selected call. The ROSES-2025 release states that, except for restrictions involving China, organizations of many types may submit, including domestic and foreign government and private organizations, for-profit companies, and nonprofit organizations. That broad ability to submit does not mean every submitted organization will receive NASA funding. Foreign organizations are generally not funded, and the award mechanism may be a grant, cooperative agreement, or another form of federal assistance depending on the work and the organization.

ROSES-2025 also contains division-specific limits. Earth Science and Planetary Science elements do not make interagency awards to federal agencies other than NASA or to certain federally funded research and development centers. Heliophysics, Astrophysics, and the F.3 Exoplanets Research Program have different rules and may require advance approval when a proposer plans to fund an interagency participant. These details matter for universities partnering with government laboratories, NASA centers, and other federal institutions. Ask the listed point of contact before building a budget around an arrangement that may not be fundable.

The PI and team must also meet the administrative conditions in NSPIRES and the element. Team members should register their own accounts, affiliate with the proposing organization, and complete the profile information NASA requests. NASA’s ROSES FAQ says that PIs and Co-Is must provide a digital persistent identifier such as an ORCID to be eligible for funding. A postdoctoral researcher or another scientist may be listed as a Science PI where the proposing organization uses that role, but organizational policy and the element’s rules still govern who can formally serve as PI.

Find the right program element first

Do not start by drafting a generic NASA proposal. Start in the official ROSES-2025 NSPIRES record and open Table 2 or Table 3. Make a short list of elements whose stated objectives match the project. Then read, in order:

1. The research overview for the relevant NASA division, if one is listed.
2. The complete program element text, including the summary of key information at the end.
3. The current Table 2 or Table 3 row, including amendments, corrections, and due-date notes.
4. The common ROSES Summary of Solicitation and its proposal checklist.
5. The program officer contact information and any special submission instructions.

Use the element’s own vocabulary to test fit. Identify the NASA mission, archive, measurement, model, scientific question, or capability that the project addresses. Note what the call does not support as well as what it does support. A project can be excellent science and still be nonresponsive if its aims belong in another division or if it omits a required step.

Deadline rules for the current cycle

The ongoing label on this guide describes the umbrella structure, not a promise that every ROSES proposal can be submitted today. Many program elements have a firm notice-of-intent, Step-1, Phase-1, or full-proposal deadline. For example, the amended Table 2 lists August 6, 2026, for both D.6 Astrophysics Research and Analysis and D.7 Strategic Astrophysics Technology; it lists August 18, 2026, for F.17 Research Initiation Awards; and it lists September 17, 2026, for the D.3E IXPE Cycle 4 and NICER Cycle 9 General Observer opportunity. Those dates apply only to those entries and should not be reused for another element.

ROSES also has No Due Date programs. The official No Due Date guidance explains that these programs accept proposals during the open period, generally without a preliminary statement such as a Notice of Intent or Step-1 proposal. Table 2 specifically says that proposals for several No Due Date elements may be submitted up to August 31, 2026, when ROSES-2026 is anticipated to be open. It separately says that C.2 Solar System Science may accept submissions up to August 1, 2026, pending the anticipated opening of ROSES-2026. Because the umbrella contains genuinely rolling components and because a past date would hide those live routes, this guide uses ongoing rather than pretending there is one deadline.

Before submitting, check the live table and any later amendment. A date in an old PDF, a search result, or a saved calendar can be superseded. If you are preparing a No Due Date proposal, read the element for review cadence, resubmission limits, and the point at which the current cycle stops accepting work. “No Due Date” does not mean that NASA will review an incomplete application whenever you want.

A practical application workflow

1. Confirm scope and administrative fit

Write a one-paragraph summary naming the research question, NASA connection, method, expected product, and target program element. Compare it line by line with the element’s objectives. Check the organization, collaboration, foreign-participation, interagency, and PI restrictions before asking partners for detailed budgets.

2. Check whether a preliminary step is required

Some elements request a Notice of Intent, while others require a Step-1 proposal or use a Phase-1 process. NASA’s FAQ notes that an ordinary NOI is often desirable rather than mandatory, but a few elements make it a prerequisite for the full proposal. The Table 2 row marks mandatory NOIs and Step-1 submissions. Do not infer from another program element’s process. Record every prerequisite and its date in the project schedule.

3. Register the people and organization in NSPIRES

Create or verify the PI, Co-I, collaborator, and organization records early. Confirm institutional affiliation and authorized organizational representative access. NSPIRES is usually the default submission route for ROSES. Grants.gov may be available only when requested in advance for a particular element, so do not wait until the due date to discover that the route is different.

4. Build the proposal around the element’s checklist

The common proposal package often includes NSPIRES cover pages; a scientific, technical, or management narrative; a detailed budget and justification; a table of personnel and work effort; biographical sketches; current and pending support; references; and required letters or appendices. An Open Science and Data Management Plan may be required, and NASA provides an optional standard template for convenience. The element can require additional material or omit items that do not apply. Use its checklist rather than copying a package from a prior year.

The narrative should make the NASA relevance visible without relying on slogans. State the objectives, hypotheses or research questions, methods, data sources, milestones, risks, validation plan, and expected products. Explain who performs each task and why the team can access the data, facilities, instruments, software, or computing resources. If the call uses dual-anonymous peer review, remove identifying details from the portions that must be anonymized and follow the element’s instructions exactly.

5. Make the budget consistent with the work

Prepare the budget while the narrative is being drafted. Explain personnel effort, subawards, travel, equipment, data purchases, publication costs, computing, and other requested items. Include all applicable costs where NASA requires them, including salary, fringe, overhead, NASA civil-servant labor, and subawards in the appropriate NSPIRES and Total Budget materials. The number should be defensible for the work plan, not a generic amount chosen because it appeared in another NASA award.

6. Release and submit correctly

In the normal NSPIRES flow, the PI releases the completed proposal to the organization. The authorized organizational representative reviews it and clicks “Submit Proposal.” NASA’s NSPIRES guidance is explicit that the AOR must complete that final action before the applicable deadline; saving a draft or releasing it is not submission. Both the PI and AOR should receive confirmation after a successful submission. Submit early enough to resolve profile, PDF, permissions, or server problems.

7. Monitor amendments after submission

NASA can amend ROSES during the cycle. Subscribe to the SMD mailing list in NSPIRES, monitor the ROSES blog, and recheck the relevant Table 2 or Table 3 row. Read corrections and clarifications as well as headline amendments. Keep a local record of the solicitation version used for the proposal, but treat the official NASA record as the controlling source.

Common mistakes to avoid

The most common error is treating the umbrella title as the call. A proposal that merely mentions NASA, space, or satellite data is not automatically responsive. The second is carrying a deadline from one element into another. The third is assuming that an NOI is always optional or that every program uses a two-step review. The fourth is submitting a polished narrative with a budget that cannot support its personnel and deliverables. The fifth is leaving the final NSPIRES submission to the PI when the organization’s AOR must click the submit control.

Another avoidable problem is putting essential evidence behind a link. NASA’s FAQ allows references and URLs for context, but reviewers should not have to open a webpage to understand the proposal. Put the method, rationale, and evaluation evidence in the proposal itself. Finally, read the latest amendment before submission. ROSES is updated during the year, and the table notes which due dates and program elements have changed.

Bottom line

ROSES-2025 is still an active NASA research umbrella, but it is not a single application opportunity. The correct deadline, eligibility decision, budget, required materials, and review method come from the specific program element. Use the official ROSES-2025 NSPIRES record, open the current Table 2 or Table 3, read the element and common checklist, and confirm any question with the named program officer. For general ROSES questions, NASA directs researchers to [email protected]. The page remains an active guide because current-cycle fixed and No Due Date elements are still present; it does not claim that every program element accepts applications continuously.