2010 NASA team grants announced

[Travis Hoffman]

On behalf of Teams 48, 2835, and rookies 3193 and 3209, NEOFRA teams all, thank you VERY MUCH, NASA, for your support of our teams this season, and your continued extensive support of the FIRST community as a whole.

Congrats also to friends on 3138 and 462 for receiving funding.

[keehun]

On behalf of Team 2502, I would like to thank NASA for their support!

We will put in all we've got this year. Also thanks to 1714 and 11 for all the support with EWCP.

[JB987]

Just curious...how many other senior veteran teams were unsuccessful with Challenge Grant applications this year? Appears that NASA decided to go with rookies and young teams.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by JB987

Just curious...how many other senior veteran teams were unsuccessful with Challenge Grant applications this year? Appears that NASA decided to go with rookies and young teams.

Not so much. 1024, 1501, and 1714 immediately come to mind.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Not so much. 1024, 1501, and 1714 immediately come to mind.

Those are not Challenge Grant recipients, they are Sustaining Grant recipients. Many older teams received these grants-

• 7
• 447
• 462
• 529
• 647
• 649
• 686
• 847
• 930
• 938
• 956
• 1001
• 1024
• 1257
• 1359
• 1389
• 1458
• 1501
• 1591
• 1631
• 1669
• 1714
• 1716
• 1729
• 1751
• 1781
• 1796
• 1831
  I stopped at 2035

Dave- what was the qualifying criteria for a Sustaining Grant? Thanks for the info.

[JB987]

A look at the regional lists shows North Carolina bound vets were chosen at higher ratio than at Utah regional by far...congratulations to everyone who was successful though.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by JB987

A look at the regional lists shows North Carolina bound vets were chosen at higher ratio than at Utah regional by far...congratulations to everyone who was successful though.

I'm curious how you got the ratio of applied:received? Is there a published list somewhere? I'm assuming there were just fewer teams who applied or planned on going to Utah.

[JB987]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

I'm curious how you got the ratio of applied:received? Is there a published list somewhere? I'm assuming there were just fewer teams who applied or planned on going to Utah.

Ratio I am referring to is 12 grants awarded out of 22 "vets" attending NC vs 9 out of 19 at UT= 55% vs 47%...not a real big difference, granted. And not an applied/received ratio without knowing exactly who applied, but if assumptions are allowed (mindful of what they say about what happens if you assume ), and one posits vets would apply at equal rates for different regionals, then the numbers become interesting. On the other hand, a look at rookie grants shows only 37% of NC rookies have grants vs 69% of UT rookies. Is it likely a higher % of UT teams applied or were they better supported with grant writing help? Or...

[Chris Fultz]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Dave- what was the qualifying criteria for a Sustaining Grant? Thanks for the info.

I am not Dave, but i did have this info saved on my computer. This is the grant description from the NASA website.

Regional Challenge Grants: In conjunction with the sponsorship of Regional Competition events, NASA is making Regional Challenge Grants available to teams that participate in these events. The grants provide funding to cover the registration costs for that event. All funding will be sent directly to FIRST, and FIRST will credit the accounts of teams selected to receive a NASA sponsorship.

Program Growth Grants: Program Growth Grants are being offered to teams in their first two years of participation in the FRC competition. These sponsorships are not tied to any particular competition event. The grants will provide funding to cover the registration costs for the team to attend their first Regional Competition event. All funding will be sent directly to FIRST, and FIRST will credit the accounts of teams selected to receive a NASA Program Growth Grant.

Sustaining Grants: It is recognized that this is an extraordinarily difficult year for many teams due to the national economic situation. Due to the extreme circumstances, many long-term teams have lost significant corporate sponsorship and are on the brink of ceasing operations. It is our intent to provide short-term assistance to those teams to allow them to continue productive participation in the program while they identify and acquire new long-term sponsorship. Toward that end, NASA will accept applications for "Sustaining Grants" to provide a $5,000 grant to provide first-event funding for qualified veteran teams. Sustaining Grants are intended to help teams on the verge of dissolution, and are not intended funding for participation in second or third competition events.

To qualify, teams must document that they have lost one or more of the primary financial sponsors that they had during the 2009 season, and explain how this loss of sponsorship affects the potential for survival of the team. The team must also describe their plans for recovery of long-term sponsorship, and how this will be acquired in time to sustain the team beyond the 2010 season.

.

[Wetzel]

I know there were a lot of submissions and a lot of work to evaluate them. Is there any process in place for teams that submitted to get feedback on where they fell short in order to improve their submission for next year?

thanks
Wetzel