Strategic Function

Download Program Strategy (pdf)

The Applied Sciences Program supports the Earth Science Division (ESD) within the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The Program serves the overall NASA science goal to expand scientific understanding of the Earth and the universe in which we live and to advance scientific understanding of the changing Earth system to meet societal needs.

Within the Earth Science Division, the Applied Sciences Program serves the following strategic functions:

• Advance Earth science and technology, particularly through applied research
• Build partnerships, especially with non-traditional partners, to broaden awareness and support for NASA Earth science
• Enable involvement in mission planning and science teams by applications communities to build anticipation and advocacy for the missions and research results
• Enable feedback from applications communities on NASA Earth science data sets and model outputs, helping improve the products available overall
• Demonstrate, deliver and document socioeconomic benefits and impacts of NASA Earth science
• Raise expectations for use and availability of Earth science products in public and private sector decision making, increasing demand for Earth science technology, observations, and research

Program Areas:

The Applied Sciences Program is organized thematically around 9 applications areas -- Health & Air Quality, Ecological Forecasting, Natural Disasters, Water Resources, Agriculture, Climate, Energy, Oceans, and Weather. The Program also manages program-wide, capacity-building activities to improve domestic and international skills and capabilities in the use of NASA Earth science. These capacity building programs include SERVIR, DEVELOP, the Gulf of Mexico Initiative, and a Training Program.

Organization:

The Applied Science Program consists of Program Leadership at NASA Headquarters, Program support at 6 NASA Centers (Ames, Goddard, JPL, Langley, Marshall, Stennis), Project Offices at 3 NASA Centers, and project management at principal investigators' organizations.

The Program assigns a Headquarters-level Applications Program Manager (PM) for each application area and maintains Center-based Project Offices for 3 capacity-building activities: DEVELOP (Langley), SERVIR (Marshall), and Gulf of Mexico Initiative (Stennis).

View the Applied Sciences Program's Organizational Chart

Solicitations:

The Applied Sciences Program implements the program primarily through grant solicitations for competitively-selected, peer-reviewed projects. Solicitations are issued through NASA's annual Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES), an umbrella call for proposals. ROSES are issued in February each year.

Budgetary Information:

The enacted FY12 budget for the Applied Sciences Program is:

FY11 Enacted	FY10	FY11	FY12	FY13	FY14	FY15
Budget Authority ($ millions)	32.2	36.6	35.6	37.1	38.0	39.2

 

The President's FY13-15 Budget request for the Applied Sciences Program is:

FY11 President's Request	FY10	FY11	FY12	FY13	FY14	FY15
Budget Authority ($ millions)	32.2	36.6	38.3	41.1	45.9	48.7

 

Partnerships:

The Applied Sciences Program works through partnerships with public and private organizations that want to improve their internal decision-making activities and/or the products and services they provide their constituents and customers. NASA and the partner organizations collaborate to test and integrate the data and modeling capabilities into the decision making and/or products and services. These collaborations involve appropriate academic, business, nonprofit, and other entities to accomplish the project and extend the results.

As a program within a Federal agency, Applied Sciences prioritizes activities that have potential to accrue benefits to the broadest number of citizens. Thus, the Program favors partnerships with organizations that have large, established networks to users and decision makers, such as Federal agencies with mandates to serve state, local, and tribal entities. As an efficient use of limited resources, the Program seeks to leverage the partner organizations' networks to users, expecting the partners to extend benefits from the projects. The Program also relies on the partners to represent their constituents' needs and relay any feedback on NASA Earth science products.

Domestically, the Program partners with organizations that have national perspectives, such as Federal agencies and national/regional associations. Examples of such organizations include the US EPA, Bureau of Reclamation, Western Governors Association, Gulf of Mexico Alliance, and the American Water Resources Association.

Internationally, the Program partners with Federal agencies that have international mandates, such as USAID, and with established international organizations and non-governmental organizations, such as World Bank, UN FAO, and Conservation International.