An Innovative Opportunity for Small Businesses:

NASA Prizes and Challenges

Amy Kaminski, NASA Headquarters

Dawn Turner, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Traditional innovation at NASA

• Do it ourselves

• Team with private companies,academic experts, and othergovernment space agencies

• Use contracts, peer-reviewed grants,agreements, memoranda ofunderstanding

Prizes and challenges: A different approach to engaging outside sources of innovation

Traditional grants/contracts

• Write a solicitation

• Share it with community of experts

• Review and rate proposals

• Award funds to those you expect willhave the greatest impact

Prizes and challenges

• Write a focused problem statement

• Share it with broadly, with diversecommunities

• See if anyone solves the problem

• If – and only if – the results meet therequirements, make an award

NASA prizes and challenges landscape

Months

$1K to $100s of K

Ideas, design, software

Years

$100K+ to $Ms

Technologydemos

Days/Weeks

Recognition

Software apps/tech concepts

Duration

Awards

Products

Months

Varies

Design

Worldwide

Space Act

Students (US)

Space Act; grants & cooperative agreements

Eligibility

Authority

Worldwide; US-led (COMPETES)

Procurement; COMPETES Act

US-led (to win prize)

NASA prize authority

STUDENT

CHALLENGES

These opportunities can be accessed by the public on

the NASA Solve website: www.nasa.gov/solve

350+ challenges

to date across

NASA, supporting: • Operational solutions

(software, algorithms,

apps, videos)

• State-of-the-art

advancement

(hardware prototypes)• Knowledge-

sharing/idea

generation

(designs/concepts)

Small businesses can play important roles in NASA challenges and prize competitions

• As competitors. We offer small businesses, student groups, and independent inventors and individuals incentives to participate in technology development that benefits NASA but that may also have potential for commercialization.

• As competition judges. We rely on the knowledge and experience of experts inside and outside of NASA to evaluate competition entries.

• As supporting partners. Competitions are at their most powerful and relevant when they meet the goals of NASA and other organizations and benefit from a combination of resources.

Participation as competitors

Number of Teams

Location of Teams

Participation as competitors

• “I personally wanted to reach out and thank you for your support of our SEArch+ teamagain in the recent Phase 3 Centennial Challenge.

• These competitions have been life changing in so many ways and your leadership rolehas been a critical key to our success and on-going progress.

• In addition to the avalanche of press, international museum exhibitions and speakingengagements that the Centennial Challenge competitions continue to generate forus, there is a fantastic ‘big collaboration opportunity’ for SEArch+ , in partnership withNASA, now on our horizon…”

•

• - Team SEArch+ e-mail 6/4/2019

How will a challenge competition impact a team?3D-Printed Habitat Challenge

“Participating in the NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Centennial Challenge was one of the more catalytic experiences that ICON has gone through as we continue to develop what we believe will be a paradigm shifting technology.

This program has been a model for what it can look like for large government agencies to engage innovative private-sector enterprise in serious work. Our company is better for having participated in the Centennial Challenge."

- Jason Ballard, CEO, Co-Founder, ICON

Participation as competition judges

Cube

QuestVascular

TissueSpace

Robotics

CO2

Conversion

$5M prize

CubeSat propulsion, communication

around Moon and into deep space.

Top 3 teams awaiting EM-1 ride.

$0.5M prize

3D-printed human organ tissue to

advance medicine in space and on Earth.

First-to-demonstrate.

$1.9M prize

Autonomous robotic navigation and

decision systems for ISRU tasks.

Phase 2 Opened August 2019.

$1.0M prize

Bio-manufacturing from in-situ resources

on Mars.

Phase 2 Opened September 2019.

Lunar Nutrition

TBD Prize

Addressing technology gaps in nutrition and life

support systems for future planetary

missions.

• Each NASA competitionrequires several judgeswith relevant subjectmatter expertise

• Time commitment variesbased on number ofcompetitors, nature ofcompetition

Participation as supporting partners

• Legislative authority allowing private sector entities to co-support NASA prize competitions (award funding, contest administration costs)

• Small businesses can support challenges as mentors, incubators and accelerators

Contact us!

• Amy Kaminski, NASA Prizes and Challenges Program Executive• amy.p.kaminski@nasa.gov

• Dawn Turner, NASA Centennial Challenges• dawn.m.turner@nasa.gov

• For opportunities to participate in NASA prizes and challenges, visit: www.nasa.gov/solve