The Planetary Society invites proposals to its new grants program: Science and Technology Empowered by the Public (STEP) Grants. These are planetary science or technology grants chosen from an open, international, competed proposal process. Proposals must fit within one or more of The Planetary Society’s core enterprises (Explore Worlds, Find Life, Defend Earth). All funding will come from Planetary Society members and donors. Grant winners need to provide regular, short project updates and be willing to support The Planetary Society’s efforts to share the content and excitement of the project with members and the public.

Preliminary proposals (pre-proposals) are due May 26, 2021. Based on the pre-proposal submissions, a small number of proposers will be invited to submit full proposals from which grant selections will be made. For this first round of STEP Grants, the nominal expectation is two awards at approximately the US $50,000 level each. For more information, visit http://planetary.org/stepgrants.