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Received yesterday — 5 June 2025

NASA Awards Third Crowdsourcing Contract Iteration

✇NASA
By:Tiernan P. Doyle
5 June 2025 at 15:34
The letters NASA on a blue circle with red and white detail, all surrounded by a black background
Credit: NASA

NASA continues to collaborate with global communities to solve complex challenges through crowdsourcing with a series of 25 new NASA Open Innovation Service (NOIS) contracts managed by the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The contract aims to empower NASA’s workforce by actively engaging the public to find creative solutions to difficult space exploration challenges through rapid experimentation with new methodologies, new technologies, and unique perspectives, ensuring NASA remains at the forefront of innovation while accomplishing its missions.

This is the third NOIS contract, managed by NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI), and used by NASA and other government agencies. The NOIS3 contract will provide solutions through multiple crowdsourcing tools and methodologies, which include public prize competitions, freelance tasking, technology searches, and other crowd-based methods.

The total value of the NOIS3 contract is $475 million over 10 years. There is a guaranteed $500 minimum obligation for each contract award. The base contract spans June 5, 2025, through May 31, 2027, and there are two options, the first for three years, and the second for five years. If all options are exercised, work could continue through May 31, 2035.

The awardees are:

  • Blue Clarity, Vienna, Virginia
  • Capital Consulting Corp., Fairfax, Virginia
  • Challenge Works, London, United Kingdom
  • CrowdPlat Inc., Pleasanton, California
  • Design Interactive Inc., Orlando, Florida
  • DrivenData Inc., Denver
  • Ensemble Government Services, Hyattsville, Maryland
  • Hyperion Technologies, Arlington, Virginia
  • Floor23 Digital, Jackson, Wisconsin
  • Freelancer International, Sydney, Australia
  • HeroX, Wilmington, Delaware
  • HYVE Innovate, Munchen, Germany
  • Innoget, Rockville, Maryland
  • Institute of Competition Sciences, San Francisco
  • Loyal Source Government Services, Orlando, Florida
  • Luminary Labs, New York City
  • National Institute of Aerospace Associates, Hampton, Virginia
  • Randstad Federal, Duluth, Georgia
  • Rios Partners, Arlington, Virginia
  • SecondMuse, Bernalillo, New Mexico
  • TechConnect, Summerville, South Carolina
  • Toffler Associates, Arlington, Virginia
  • Tongal Inc., Los Angeles
  • Topcocder, Indianapolis
  • yet2.com Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts

NASA’s CoECI provides guidance on open innovation initiatives, helping define challenges and requirements and formulating and evaluating potential solutions. The center’s end-to-end service allows NASA and other federal agencies to rapidly experiment with new methods and solve critical problems through innovation and collaboration.

Learn more about the NASA Center of Excellence at:

https://www.nasa.gov/coeci

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Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov

Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov

Received before yesterday

Sustainable Business Model Challenge

✇NASA
By:Sarah Douglas
17 January 2025 at 07:35
On the right of the image is a multi-color depiction of Earth orbited by some of NASA's Earth science satellites. To the left of the image is the words "Sustainable Business Model Challenge."

Climate change presents one of the most urgent crises of our time, with increasing threats to life, infrastructure, economies, and ecosystems worldwide. Climate change is no longer a distant concern; its effects are being felt now and are projected to intensify if emissions continue unabated. The consequences are severe and irreversible for people today, with rapidly shrinking glaciers and ice sheets, rising sea levels, and more intense heat waves already occurring. Scientists predict even more profound impacts, such as an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, extended drought periods, and stronger tropical cyclones. By 2100, sea levels could rise by up to 6.5 feet1, displacing coastal communities and disrupting ecosystems. In the U.S., the effects vary by region—wildfires in the West have doubled in area burned, and rising sea levels threaten infrastructure in the Southeast. Innovative, data-driven solutions are essential to mitigate these growing risks. From the unique vantage point in space, NASA collects critical long-term observations of our changing planet. NASA produces vast amounts of Earth system science data from satellites, radars, and ships, as well as model outputs, offering a wealth of opportunities for innovative thinkers to leverage these sources. The Sustainable Business Model Challenge is designed to identify and foster sustainable business models built around NASA’s Earth system science data. This challenge invites entrepreneurs, researchers, startups, and innovators to use NASA’s publicly available climate and Earth system data sources to create sustainable business models to address climate challenges.

Award: $100,000 in total prizes

Open Date: January 16, 2025

Close Date: June 13, 2025

For more information, visit: https://nasabusinesschallenge.org/

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