NASA is launching two science and technology initiatives intended to deepen scientific understanding and accelerate innovation that could shape the nation’s future in space. One initiative centers on the agency’s scientific practices and peer review, while the other will support fellowship researchers.
NASA announced the initiatives in conjunction with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s “Science: A Golden Age Summit,” held in Washington on Thursday with leaders from U.S. agencies.
The first initiative establishes a coordinated effort within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate to examine and improve the agency’s scientific practices. NASA says the effort is intended to improve the reliability, efficiency, transparency and overall productivity of those practices.
As part of that work, NASA is expanding its use of a proposal-review process intended to assess proposals solely on scientific merit.
The second initiative will support 10 Genesis Mission Fellows. NASA describes them as accelerated doctoral students with competencies in both super intelligence, or SI, and science or engineering.
The initiatives address two parts of NASA’s scientific work: how research proposals are evaluated and how researchers are supported. NASA links the coordinated effort to stronger scientific practices, with the expanded use of dual anonymous peer review focused on the merit of proposals.
The Genesis Mission fellowship initiative, meanwhile, will provide support for a group of 10 doctoral students with competencies in both super intelligence and science or engineering. Together, the two initiatives reflect NASA’s stated goal of strengthening scientific understanding while accelerating space-related innovation.
NASA says the Genesis Mission fellowships will be based on its Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology program. The agency describes that existing program as successful.
The coordinated initiative to improve NASA’s scientific practices will sit within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, bringing the effort under that part of the agency.
NASA will expand its use of dual anonymous peer review and support the 10 Genesis Mission Fellows. The available details do not specify a timetable for those steps.