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Many US Government agencies including DOE, NIH, NSF and CDMRP publish awarded grant amounts. NASA does not, per attached reply from NASA on 06NOV23.

NASA keeps grant amounts secret

Why not? What distinguishes NASA legally or functionally from these other scientific and defense-related US Government entities that allow it or give it a rationale to keep awarded grant amounts secret?

DOD gives a clear public policy rationale for publishing the grant information:

DoD and ODNI/IARPA are providing the public with access to these documents in accordance with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum, Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research, dated 22 February 2013 and Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research , dated 22 August 2022. DoDI 3200.12 DoD Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP) and the DoD Grant and Agreement Regulations (DoDGARs) have been updated to include public access requirements.

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    Definitely on-topic here. You should probably delete the Acad Q though.
    – 264 champagne bottles on ice
    Commented Nov 7, 2023 at 20:53
  • 1
    OK, will do...I guess it's a matter of self-discovery. I got one downvote and 2 upvotes for 1 net upvote but it definitely seems like a topic that Academic stack exchange is not comfortable with.
    – Lars Ericson
    Commented Nov 7, 2023 at 21:26
  • 1
    @LarsEricson cool question, I've posted a link to it in The Pod Bay, the chat room for Space Exploration SE. The primary reason that cross-posting (near-simultaneous, near-identical questions posted in more than one site) is always strongly discouraged is to prevent answer fragmentation. SE generates answers not only for the question author but for future readers and search engines, who don't always check all comments to find out if the question has additional answers elsewhere.
    – uhoh
    Commented Nov 7, 2023 at 21:32
  • I used the data for a series of LinkedIn posts here: linkedin.com/newsletters/gptsplaining-7057513503103873024 My alma mater was dunning me for contributions. I told them they were better off pulling down grant money. Then I decided to rank them based on US Govt grants in various categories.
    – Lars Ericson
    Commented Nov 7, 2023 at 21:41

2 Answers 2

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They do.

I'm not certain what produced the response you cite, as the email to which they are replying is not visible, but for example:

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/nasa-grants-programs-and-resources.pdf

Recipient: University of Oregon Description: Conduct a study of snow evolution over Earth’s ice sheets. Award Amount: $13,892

etc.

To locate specific grant amounts you can do what is given in the accepted answer.

If you also wanted to include contracts, not just grants, you can use the Federal Awards Database which includes NASA activity in its dataset.

The link will send you to a filter for CMU, all fiscal years, NASA as awarding agency.

You can adjust these filters to suit your needs. That tool will also provide you with timelines, aggregation, and even geography of services rendered.

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  • At the time I wrote the question I emailed NASA and got an official reply: "That information is not available for public view." Email reproduced here: linkedin.com/pulse/…? To your best information, has the policy changed?
    – Lars Ericson
    Commented Jul 8 at 14:15
  • @LarsEricson In that post, your original email is not reproduced, I see the image you include in the OP there, but not your email which prompted that reply. So I can't say for certain that they aren't replying to, (ad absurdum example) "Can you tell me what secret defense projects you work on?" (The subject line gives me reason to be skeptical you asked as much, but it's possible there's a nuance in the question that triggered the 'no comment' equivalent. To my best information the policy hasn't changed, but the reply you got does not accord with my understanding of that policy, either.
    – William Walker III
    Commented Jul 8 at 14:44
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    Email to [email protected]: "I am attempting to rank my undergraduate alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, in the category of aerospace research, versus other research universities. I am able to see FY22 grants with the following NSPIRES query: nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/… Query results do not include awarded amount. For DOE, NIH, NSF and CDMRP, award amounts are available. "
    – Lars Ericson
    Commented Jul 9 at 17:45
  • @LarsEricson Answer updated. Enjoy.
    – William Walker III
    Commented Jul 9 at 20:45
  • OK. On what basis did NSPIRES say the information was not publicly available? Should I follow up with them and cite Federal Awards Database as a workaround?
    – Lars Ericson
    Commented Jul 11 at 12:10
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Question:

Why doesn't NASA publish amounts of awarded grants?

Short Answer:

As a central location looking for existing grants NASA is pursuing. NASA publishes a year book of all their projects including grants and the status of each. Roses Selection Data, That's good to get the names of various projects. Drill down from there.

Answer:

Beyond the YEARBOOK of all their science activities including grants. Broadly this information is available through various channels such as

  1. NASA's official website

Navigate to the "For Researchers" section under the "Get Involved" tab or directly search for "grants."

Here is the query I did for Grants.

  1. The NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review Evaluation System (NSPIRES) from their main page.

you can search for various funding opportunities, solicitations, and announcements. You will need to create an account to access full details and apply for grants.

  1. Grants.gov

Use the search bar to look for NASA-related grants by entering keywords such as "NASA" or specific program names.

Grants.gov lists federal grants from all agencies, including NASA, and provides detailed information about each grant.

These platforms provide details on grant amounts, eligibility criteria, application processes, and deadlines.

  1. NASA Research Announcements (NRAs):

NRAs are periodically released and detail specific research areas for which NASA is seeking proposals. You can see these through their official cite and the NSPIRES site listed above.

Comments

From: Lars Ericson I was trying to use it to rank universities doing aerospace tech based on their NASA awards.

Easiest way would be to write a program and scrap it off the sites provided. Use python less than 100 lines of code. Here are the results I came away with. University/ name of award/ value of award in the million of dollars. University \

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) MARTEMIS: Mars Architecture Research using Tag... $14 Million

  2. Stanford University
    Modular Self-Assembling Robotic Architecture (... $12 million

  3. University of Texas, Austin

VENOM: Volatile Examining luNar prOspectors an... $10 million

  1. University of Maryland

SITIS: Subsurface Ice and Terrain In-situ Surv... $8 million

  1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Unive...
    Project Draupnir $7 Million

  2. University of Colorado, Boulder

Small Spacecraft Technology Development $ 6 million

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology

Aeronautical and Space Systems Research $ 5 million

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  • The question is more about awarded grants than about grant opportunities. I was trying to use it to rank universities doing aerospace tech based on their NASA awards. Is there an easy way to do that? Here is a similar exercise: linkedin.com/pulse/…
    – Lars Ericson
    Commented Jul 6 at 18:19
  • @LarsEricson answered at the end of my previous answer.
    – JMS
    Commented Jul 7 at 5:00

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