To: All JPL Employees
From: Daniel McCleese, Chief Scientist and Paul Dimotakis, Chief Technologist
Subject: FY09 Call for New Research and Technology Development Topic Area Concept Papers

Deadline: Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 5PM PST

This is a Call to solicit New Concept Papers to the Topic Area category of the Research and Technology Development (R&TD) program. The main purpose of the program is to enhance JPLs ability to address the future objectives and mission of JPL and NASA consistent with the strategic direction and long-term vision. New concept papers are sought in the areas of basic research, applied research, device and systems development, technology maturation, flight instrument readiness, and other concept formulation studies. Concepts that demonstrate a clear partnership between science and technology are highly encouraged. In addition concepts that involve interdisciplinary studies are encouraged. Please note that principal investigators may only submit one Topic Area concept paper.

Topic Area Concepts

The range of Topic Areas for the highly innovative concepts can be found on the website http://rtd.jpl.nasa.gov/guidelines/index.cfm listed under the concept paper guidelines. These concept papers should be on highly innovative ideas that will make a significant technology breakthrough or science discovery. No funding limit will be imposed on these concepts but approximately 50 concepts will be downselected from the entire set to write proposals.

SUBMISSION OVERVIEW

The submission of new concept papers is the first step in a two-step procedure. In this first step, principal investigators must submit a one-page concept paper for new concepts to an online submission site by Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 5 PM PST. (The concept paper submission process is described below.) Each concept will be reviewed by an institutional evaluation board, which will then submit its recommendations to the Office of the Chief Scientist and Chief Technologist (OCST). The JPL Chief Scientist and Chief Technologist will review the recommendations and then approve which concepts will go forward to full proposals. In the second step, which will occur during a later Call for Proposals, the authors of the approved new concept papers will then be asked to submit a proposal. The reason for the two step process is to reduce the number of concepts that will go forward to full proposals and as a result reduce the amount of unnecessary work by the authors and reviewers.

Multi-Year Funding Policy for Topic Area Proposals (IMPORTANT):
In general, the duration of a Topic Area task can be no more than two (2) years. Only in exceptional well-justified circumstances, where the delivery or maturation of a defined hardware and/or software product requires three years to complete will a Topic Area task duration of three (3) years now be considered.

Renewals:

Principal investigators who were awarded FY08 funding for a Topic Area proposal and who requested FY09 funding in their original proposal do not have to submit a new concept paper but will later have to submit a proposal after the Call for Proposals is issued.
Principal investigators who received funding in FY08 for a Topic Area proposal and would like continued funding in FY09 but did not request FY09 funding in their original proposal will have to submit a new concept paper.

IMPORTANT: The one-page concept paper does not apply to Strategic Initiatives.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Principal investigators may only submit one Topic Area concept paper. Your one-page Topic Area concept paper must be submitted no later than 5 PM PST on Thursday, February 28, 2008 in accordance with the following procedure:

The downloadable electronic copy of the one-page concept paper template, Attachment A can be found in section E in the Required Forms of the Concept Paper Guidelines on the R&TD website, http://rtd.jpl.nasa.gov/guidelines/guidelines-cp-fy2009.cfm.
Topic Area Concept Papers should be submitted electronically either as a Microsoft Word document or as a PDF formatted document.
Attention to those using Microsoft Word If your Topic Area Concept Paper is submitted as a Microsoft Word document, please make sure the submitted file name is no longer than 28 characters and that it ends with the extension .doc
Attention to those using Adobe PDF If your Topic Area Concept Paper is submitted as a PDF file, please be sure to embed ALL fonts in the PDF file. This ensures that the original fonts are used to display and to print on computers that may not have these fonts installed. Note that some versions of MS Word using Acrobat Assistant do not allow control over embedding of fonts. In that case, please print the Word document to "FILE" as a PRN or PS file and process through Acrobat Distiller to create the PDF. Note that you must still specify Embed All Fonts in your Print Setup dialog. If you need technical assistance please contact: Lori Williams, Lori.A.Williams@jpl.nasa.gov, (818) 393-6392.
The author is responsible for assuring the readability of the document. Documents that are unreadable cannot be accepted. If you need technical assistance please contact: Lori Williams, Lori.A.Williams@jpl.nasa.gov, (818) 393-6392.
IMPORTANT, PLEASE REFER TO CONCEPT PAPER GUIDELINES FOR INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING WRITING AND SUBMITTING YOUR CONCEPT PAPER The major steps in the Topic Area Concept Paper writing and submission process, as well as detailed information concerning each of these steps, can be found in the Guidelines section for the Topic Area Concept Paper category. The Guidelines also include detailed instructions for completing the Attachment A concept paper write-up template.

LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED - NO EXCEPTIONS

This Call, the associated guidelines, the details regarding the concept paper template, and the downloadable version of the required Attachment A can be found on the R&TD website found at http://rtd.jpl.nasa.gov.