NASA and FIRST Grants - Registration Fee and Regranting?
 

We're a Rookie Team and have a question about grants. We're only going to one Regional event (covered in the initial registration fee of $6,000). If we qualify, then we'll be at Worlds as well, but that's complete optimism right now. :)

A commitment for our initial Rookie registration fee and KOP ($6k) has just been submitted to FIRST for by our sole (at this point) sponsor. We've already applied for the NASA grant and were about the apply for the FIRST grant. Both grants say they pay for our registration fee. What happens if we get all three? Our registration fee is already paid. Are we allowed to apply and can we accept the money/will we be able to use it? Any idea on how this works? I read about regranting, but I wasn't 100% sure how it might apply and wanted to get a veteran's take on it from experience.

Thanks for any insight-

Re: NASA and FIRST Grants - Registration Fee and Regranting?
 

It depends on your sponsor.

I would highly suggest contacting FIRST regarding these various sponsorships, or the sponsors directly, in terms of the procedures.

From our experience being a NASA sponsored team for two years, we have known that NASA is VERY strict (to our understanding) of paying only for the registration fee.

In the past, when we've acquired two grants, FIRST has always applied the NASA grant towards registration & KOP and re-granted the other grants.

I don't know if NASA does any re-granting or if they're solely for registration funding, but I'd be sure to contact FIRST about that.

In sum, some sponsors do either regranting or registration, and some do just registration. Find out.

We once got a sponsorship offer from Motorola for $10,000 for both Registration & some robot costs, but since NASA covered the registration they just offered us $3,500 for extra costs - perhaps some of your grants have that option too.

Basically, email FIRST and find out. There's a special email for fundraising/financial stuff, or you can also email your regional director.

Re: NASA and FIRST Grants - Registration Fee and Regranting?
 

Thank you!

Re: NASA and FIRST Grants - Registration Fee and Regranting?
 

I see you already found the site, but for official answers like this, it is always good to go to HQ.

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...c/registration

Also has email address.

cc: your regional director on all communication