** Catalyst proposals are reviewed on a rolling basis. TRISH plans to conduct the first review of the year in February 2025. To be considered, please submit your Step-1 proposal by Thursday, February 6th. **  

The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) is tasked with identifying and supporting disruptive, high-risk approaches for addressing human health and performance in deep spaceflight. Realizing that these cutting-edge programs require time and investment to be successful, the Catalyst Grant Program permits funding for innovative, focused research that pertains to the TRISH mission of translating radically novel approaches to reduce health risk and optimize physical and/or behavioral performance during deep space exploration. 

TRISH recognizes the need to encourage innovation among the space health community, to attract companies with cutting-edge technologies and high-risk, high-reward ideas, and to translate existing technologies for use in spaceflight. All proposals should be sure to clearly justify how the project will reduce risks to human health and performance in space.

The Catalyst Grant Program offers a streamlined method for carrying out proof-of-concept projects, directed technology development(s) for space health that address a critical need(s), maturation of promising concepts with strong preliminary findings, and innovative projects that present opportunities outside of regularly scheduled solicitation cycles. 

In keeping with the TRISH mission of translating and maturing novel approaches, TRISH may identify specific project(s) for deeper investigation or collaboration opportunities with other funded researchers. 

Our primary goal is to help mitigate NASA Human Research Program’s (HRP) risks and enable future Artemis missions and deep space exploration.  

Eligibility
All categories of United States (U.S.) institutions and companies are eligible to submit proposals. Principal Investigators may collaborate with universities, the private sector, and federal, state, and local government laboratories. In all such arrangements, the applying entity is expected to be responsible for administering the project according to the management approach presented in the proposal. For our policy on international proposers and institutions, please refer to https://spacehealth.bcm.edu/res/p/applicantfaq/.

The applying entity must have in place a documented base of ongoing high-quality research and development in science, healthcare, and technology, or in those areas of science, medicine, and engineering clearly relevant to the specific programmatic objectives and research emphases indicated in this document. Start-up companies should highlight their track record from previous positions in detail in the Team Member’s Biosketch.

For more information on TRISH and NASA procurement mechanisms, please refer to NASA FAR Supplement https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/regs/NFS.pdf.

Award information
Tier 1 projects are a maximum total amount < $150K and limited to one year.
Tier 2 projects can reach a total amount of ≥ $150K for up to two years.

All direct and indirect costs required by an institution must be included in the total cost of the award.

TRISH seeks research that enables and enhances human exploration of space beyond low Earth orbit. Catalyst Projects MUST: 

• Have a focus that falls outside of a currently open or recently-closed TRISH solicitation.
• Address a critical challenge for NASA HRP and TRISH.
• Represent unique, high-impact ideas, technologies, or countermeasures to spaceflight hazards.

Selected proposals will be funded as research grants. Multi-year proposals will be funded in one-year increments. Additional funding allocations to participating investigators will be based on the submitted budget, available funds, programmatic alignment, and project review.

Catalyst Priority Topics:

Any project that addresses the NASA Human Research Roadmap (HRR) and the TRISH Initiatives may be proposed. However, TRISH has identified three topic areas of higher interest, each encompassing several sub-topics. Proposals addressing a listed topic area or sub-topic will receive higher priority. Proposals that fall outside these topics will receive lower priority. 

Topic Area: Advancing Technology to Support Remote Crew Health and Performance Monitoring

As we move away from Low Earth Orbit (LEO), a paradigm shift is needed in how medical care is delivered in space. In the current system, there is a heavy reliance on communication with the ground which will be a significant challenge for missions to Mars. New tools will be needed to empower astronauts to make health care and performance decisions without relying on contact with mission control.  Advancements are required to enable remote healthcare delivery and enable astronauts to stay healthy while further from Earth for longer than ever before. The topics in this section are aligned with TRISH’s Human and Environmental Research Matrix for Exploration of Space (HERMES) initiative; proposers should consider how the data obtained in this section ultimately relates to the ability to provide adequate health care to the future and expanding spacefaring population. Proposers are expected to consider mass, power, volume, crew time, resupply, connectivity and communication delays in proposals submitted to these sub-topics. 

Sub-Topics of Interest:

1. Approaches to monitor the trabecular bone architecture that could be used in spaceflight. A successful approach must be very low mass, power and volume. 
2. Biomedical monitoring devices to robustly collect actigraphy data with a low burden on the crew. 
3. Development, or re-purposing for spaceflight, of medical sensor technology capable of measuring multiple health-relevant biomarkers unobtrusively and without reliance on a cloud. Successful tools must limit mass, power, volume, and time, be easy to use, and compare themselves to the clinical standard. In the step-1, proposers must make a case for their marker measurement device’s current or expected performance, mass, power, volume and time to use in comparison to the state of the art. (Examples of biomedical tools that TRISH has recently used in commercial spaceflight: BioButton and Butterfly Ultrasound)
4. Development, or re-purposing for spaceflight, of a sociometric software capable of identifying individual and team psychosocial states (e.g., power dynamics, team identification) to unobtrusively provide crews with meaningful and useful feedback regarding relevant team performance metrics. 
5. Using unobtrusive data collection technology to assess individual and team psychosocial states (e.g. power dynamics, team identification) to provide crews with meaningful and useful feedback regarding relevant team performance metrics. 
6. Technology improvements that advance the shelf-life of pre-packaged foods or fresh-grown produce and novel aspects of food safety.
7. Technology improvements in repackaging drugs into smaller packages for space travel that preserve their shelf life. 

Topic Area: Advancing Remote Healthcare Knowledge Base

To support effective remote healthcare in future spaceflight, we will need to personalize healthcare delivery better as we move away from LEO. More personalized healthcare will enable more effective use of a future spacecraft's limited mass, power, and volume resources. The topics in this section are aligned with TRISH’s HERMES and Science ENterprise to INform Exploration Limits (SENTINEL) initiatives; proposers should consider how the data obtained in this section ultimately relates to the ability to provide adequate and personalized health care to the future and expanding spacefaring population. 

Sub-Topics of Interest:

1. Determining if changes/biomarkers/biosignatures captured through ground-based brain imaging methods can be used to track or understand human performance or behavioral/cognitive status in normal healthy people longitudinally. 
2. Identify, develop, and validate biomarkers. Biomarkers should be validated against the clinical standard if one is available. 
3. Using advanced biological systems (i.e., tissue chips, organoids, microphysiological systems, etc.) to define individual susceptibility to Human Research Program (HRP) relevant risks, see HRR especially those in Cancer, CV, BMed/CNS). 
4. Using advanced biological systems (i.e., tissue chips, organoids, microphysiological systems, etc.) to advance precision health focused on addressing one or more HRP risk – see HRR. 
5. Improved approaches to understanding pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of medications in spaceflight. Particularly in understanding how spaceflight impacts transcription, protein formation, and enzymatic activity related to drug processing on Earth vs in space. Understanding how spaceflight affects liver enzyme activity, and the renal system is particularly important. 
6. Advancements in screening and treatment plans for space motion sickness in a remote healthcare setting.  
7. Advancements in the screening and treatment plans for urinary retention in a remote healthcare setting. 

Topic Area: Advancing Remote Research Capabilities 

Space research must change as we move away from LEO. The current system heavily relies on communication with the ground and sample return, which will be a significant challenge for missions to Mars. Advancements are needed to improve remote research capabilities to enable effective science in new environments. These topics are aligned with TRISH’s SENTINEL initiative; proposers should consider how the data obtained in this section ultimately relates to the ability to conduct adequate research in remote environments. 

Sub-Topics of Interest:

1. Using advanced biological systems (i.e., tissue chips, organoids, microphysiological systems, etc.) to identify new countermeasures to HRP relevant risks, see HRR especially those in Cancer, CV, BMed/CNS). 
2. Unobtrusive data collection technology that can seamlessly collect research data. This can include automated speech-to-text transcription and video coding.  

TRISH strongly encourages proposers to review the following bullets to ensure the relevance of their proposed research, technology, countermeasure, or idea to TRISH: 

• The environment of space is one that includes many simultaneous stressors which impact numerous biological systems at once. With restrictions on mass, power, volume and crew time for space missions, many single-point solutions have limited application for future space travel. Therefore, TRISH encourages cross-discipline and cross-risk work, as well as multi-use technologies. For the list of Human Research Risks please see the NASA HRR (https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/). 
• TRISH encourages proposers to take into account the Institute’s mission and goals which include supporting research for NASA’s future Artemis missions. Artemis Program goals focus on landing humans on the moon and eventually on Mars. Note that early Artemis missions will focus on the Moon specifically, but these missions can also be considered as a testbed for Mars missions in accordance with NASA’s future plans (https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/). 
• TRISH encourages proposers to consider that Artemis missions, especially late Artemis, will have significant time delays for communications, limited connectivity and lack of or minimal resupply capability.   
• TRISH encourages projects whose endpoints could be spaceflight implementable within a near-term (3 years or less) expected timeframe, suitable for the Artemis Program. TRISH will prioritize highly relevant proposals that make a strong case for maturing enough to reach an implementable deliverable within 3 years.   
• Given the above-described restrictions on mass, power, volume, crew time, resupply, connectivity, and communication delays, TRISH allows the maturation of existing technologies, countermeasure candidates, or research focus areas provided a strong case is made for reaching an implementable deliverable within 3 years.  
• TRISH encourages methods that are out-of-the-box, challenge assumptions, and could lead to extraordinary outcomes.  
• TRISH seeks new ways to partner with stakeholders, new approaches to find promising technologies, or new methods to extend TRISH’s reach into emerging areas with the potential to reduce, maintain, or enhance human health (physiological/psychological) and performance during deep space missions. 

TRISH discourages the following types of proposals:  

• TRISH discourages projects that provide a single-point solution (see above).  
• TRISH discourages work that is primarily in animal models with no translation toward human cells, tissue chips, organs, or human subjects.  
• TRISH will not consider Catalyst proposals on topics that are the same as NASA or TRISH solicitations that are currently open.  
• Any proposals focusing on complex invasive procedures will need to clearly justify why the procedure would likely be feasibly implementable and required during the expected timeline of the Artemis Program.  

The Catalyst Program Solicitation (amended 12-18-24)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Updated on 04/05/2024

Sample Size Guidelines

VACS Instructional Document

Budget Template

DMP Template

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