NASA Minority University Research Education Project (MUREP)

NASA's Minority University Research Education Project sits inside the agency's space-technology portfolio and channels grant funding to US-based minority-serving institutions. NASA is an independent federal agency with 20 centers and five mission directorates, and this route is one of the ways it funds work tied to those missions. The program is geared to space-tech and aerospace work, with annual competition and award sizes ranging from $200,000 to $2 million. The eligibility gate is narrow: the record requires a for-profit applicant tied to a US-based MSI, with projects between TRL 2 and TRL 6 and no match funding requirement. The median actual award is about $500,000, so the route sits above small seed grants but below the large-scale development programs that dominate later-stage federal work. The strongest applications will look like mission-linked technical development rather than general institutional support. Teams should anchor the proposal in a specific NASA-relevant use case and a realistic development path, because the award is meant to advance concrete technology work rather than broad campus capacity.

No upcoming rounds verified. Cadence: Annual.