2010 NASA team grants announced

[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.

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