2023-2024 FRC Sponsorship Grants

NASA FRC Sponsorship Application Directions for the 2024 Competition Season

Welcome to the NASA FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) grant application process for the 2024 competition season. We are very excited your team is planning to participate in FRC this year. You are choosing to provide students with the opportunity to use their minds to accomplish an incredible task: starting with ideas that exist only in the minds of your team members and then creating a functioning robot in only a few weeks. Wow! As you get started with the process of applying for sponsorship from NASA, we want to explain a few things to you.

In order to support rapid growth within the FIRST Robotics Competition, FRC, program we will be prioritizing awarding rookie team grants and will not be offering any veteran grants this year. The Sustaining Grant, SG, program was created to help teams that were affected by wide spread natural disasters. The SG Program was never intended to be a long-term opportunity within NASA’s RAP grant priorities. We are proud to have helped as many teams as we have over the years and look forward to helping start as many rookie teams as possible!

Important Dates:

Grant Application Closes — No exceptions!	Saturday, September 30, 2023 @ 11:59:59 PM EDT
Awarded grants posted	Week of November 6, 2023*
Educational Institutional Support Letter	Saturday, January 06, 2024 @ 06:00:00 PM EST
Entrance Survey deadline	Saturday, January 06, 2024 @ 11:59:59 PM EST
Exit Survey deadline	Saturday, June 01, 2024 @ 12:00:00 AM EDT
Annual Report Essay	Saturday, June 01, 2024 @ 12:00:00 AM EDT

*There was a mistake on the Awarded grants posted date. This has been update to reflect the time stated on all other pages. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause your team.

Limitations of All NASA Grants:

• While NASA strongly supports the FIRST Robotics Competition being an international program, we regret that NASA cannot offer sponsorship to teams outside the United States of America.

Requirements of All NASA Grants:

All teams selected by NASA agree to the following conditions of sponsorship. Teams not complying with all sponsorship requirements will not be considered for future NASA grants, and may be required to provide reimbursement of funds applied toward their team during the competition year.

1. “NASA” MUST BE IDENTIFIED as a team sponsor and appear in the sponsored team’s official name on record with FIRST. Other sponsors may be listed before or after NASA, but NASA must be included.
2. All student team members MUST COMPLETE a brief general online “Entrance Survey” at the beginning of the season and an “Exit Survey” at the end of the season to assist NASA in assessing the impact of the program. The survey at the beginning MUST BE COMPLETED prior to the FRC kickoff event.
3. Sponsored teams MUST COMPLETE and submit an annual report (aka Chairman’s/Impact Award) to NASA.
4. We must receive a letter of support from your educational institution sponsor (school or other educational entity: 4-H, Non-Profit, Scout Troop, etc). This letter must endorse the team’s desire to apply for funding, confirm the educational sponsor’s commitment to the team, and agree to the conditions of sponsorship. Teams will not be required to submit this documentation until they are selected for an award.
5. A robot MUST BE COMPLETED and shipped/brought to the appropriate competition(s).
6. If the sponsorship is associated with a specific regional event (Regional Challenge Grant), sponsored teams MUST ATTEND the specific event for which the sponsorship was awarded.
7. Sponsorship MAY NOT BE TRANSFERRED to another team; it must be used by the original team applying for sponsorship.

Important notes regarding the NASA FRC Grant Application:

• Final grant awards are contingent on continuing resolution and the availability of congressional funding.
• This grant is only available for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) program level.
• All teams selected to receive a NASA grant will have funding sent directly to FIRST. This funding will be applied to the teams registration costs.
• When providing your contact information, please provide the information for the email account and phone line you check most often.
• It is expected that a mentor complete the application process with assistance from the students.
• The complete application process and document submittal process is contained within the “Grant Portal”. After reading and agreeing with the statement at the bottom of the page, click the button to be taken to the registration area.
• Registration is for access to the NASA sponsorship application site only and does NOT register you with FIRST Robotics Competition.
• You will not be able to submit an application until you have a FIRST team number (either temporary or final team number).
• After you log in to the application you will be able to save your work in progress and return to it at a later time for completion. NOTE: a saved application does not constitute a submission. Your application will not be submitted until you click on the “Submit” button, and are presented with the submission status message on the page. After a successful submission, you will also receive an email confirmation. (If you do not receive an email confirmation of your application submission, please check your junk mail/spam folder.)
• Each team may only apply for one NASA grant each year. Modifications to an application or application resubmission prior to the deadline do not count against this limit.
• The data you provide in the portal and application will be automatically validated for completion after you click on the Submit button. Problem areas will have a red outline and must be corrected before the data can be saved or submitted. NOTE: Your application has not been saved or submitted until the application saved or submitted status is presented with a pop-up dialogue.
• It is encouraged to answer essay questions in a text editor of your choice, then once complete, cut and paste your answers into the appropriate text box within the grant application.
• In the event that a particular field is flagged while saving or submitting an application, that field can be left blank in order to save existing work. Once the issue surrounding the flagged question is resolved and your application is complete, you will be able to submit it.
• Should you run into any issues with the portal while using your account or completing your team’s application, please submit a Ticket in the portal with as much detail as possible so we can address the issue in a timely manner.
• The application page has a 120-minute timeout and starts from the moment you login. If you exceed the 120-minute timeout without saving your application, you will automatically be logged out of the website. In this case, all your unsaved data will be lost. Each time you save or submit your application, the session timer will be reset so you will have an additional 120 minutes to complete your application. 
• NOTE: The website will stop accepting applications promptly at the specified deadline, in which case, you will not be able to extend your session or submit an application after the deadline, even when logged into the website.
• You will need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. 
• NASA will review submitted applications and inform teams of their selection via the NASA Robotics Alliance Project (RAP) website (https://robotics.nasa.gov). It is our plan to announce selections the Week of October 10, 2023. Please note that this is our current best estimate for the announcement date. The date may have to change due to circumstances beyond our control. If this should happen, a revised estimate of the announcement date will be posted on the RAP website as soon as possible.
• Please do not wait until the last minute to login and submit your application. The portal will stop accepting applications promptly at the specified deadline, regardless of when you logged in. Note: If your application has errors it will not submit the application even if it’s right at the deadline. You must ensure all errors are resolved prior to submission of application. 
• The website has been tested and works best using Chrome and Firefox. If you run into issues, please use one of these two browsers. 

Team classification and types of applications available.

The grant portal should determine what type team classification your team is. In the event you feel it has selected the wrong classification please read over these classifications again, and if you still feel the team was classified wrong please reach out to us via the ticket system.

Rookie Teams – A rookie team is defined as a team that is new to FRC, not yet having competed in any official FRC event.

• Available Rookie Grants:
  • 2024 Rookie Grant Application
    • This grant is intended for rookie teams that are trying to grow their program. If the team meets all the requirements of the grant, they will be eligible for an additional year of funding.
  • 2024 MS Regional Challenge Grant – Rookie
    • This Regional Challenge Grant is associated with the Magnolia FRC Regional in Laurel , MS. Teams that apply for this grant are required to attend this regional. If the team is not currently registered for this event when the selection process is made the team will become at risk of losing the award.

Year-Two Teams – Year-Two Team is a team that was identified as a Rookie team during the 2023 FRC Season AND received a NASA Sponsorship during the 2023 FRC Season.

• Available Grants:
  • 2024 Year-Two Grant Application
    • This grant is only eligible for teams that meet the requirements above. This grant is intended for teams to continue the growth of their program by providing them the second year of sponsorship. Year-Two teams are required to have secured $5,000 in corporate funds and be willing to mentor a robotics team.

Veteran Teams – Teams that had their FRC Rookie year in the 2022 competition season or earlier, OR was a Rookie in the 2023 competition season and did not receive NASA sponsorship.

• Available Grants:
  • There are no Veteran grants being offered this year so that we can prioritize expanding the program through rookie grants.

NASA’s Robotics Alliance Project Contact Information:

Should you have any questions or issues prior to entering the portal, please send an email to AGENCY-FRC-Grants@mail.nasa.gov.  We strive to respond to messages within one business day. If you already have an account with the portal, please submit a ticket via the ticket system within the portal.

Please note this site collects a wide array of information to allow us to effectively review and assess proposals. The contact information collected in the application portal will never be shared with anyone outside of the Robotics Alliance Project Office. If you have any questions or concerns about the collection of this data, please contact us at: AGENCY-FRC-Grants@mail.nasa.gov.

Access to the Portal:

• Mentors are expected to complete the application process with input from the students.
• All users must create a new account to apply for a grant this year.

Access NASA’s FRC Grant Portal