From NASANews@mercury.hq.nasa.gov Tue Oct  3 17:56:21 1995
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 15:58:05 -0400
From: NASANews@luna.osf.hq.nasa.gov (NASA HQ Public Affairs Office)
To: press-release-nasa@mercury.hq.nasa.gov
Subject: New Research Announcement Will Save Thousands of Dollars
Sender: NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
Content-Length: 2873

Brian Dunbar
Headquarters, Washington, DC              October  3, 1995
(Phone:  202/358-0873)

RELEASE:  95-167

NEW RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT PROCESS WILL SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS

     An improved process for soliciting research proposals 
likely will save NASA tens of thousands of dollars a year 
by using the Internet rather than mail distribution.

     The first electronic NASA Research Announcement (NRA) 
was issued Sept. 22 by NASA's Office of Mission to Planet 
Earth (OMTPE).  The announcement, soliciting several kinds 
of scientific proposals, was posted to the Mission to 
Planet Earth Home Page on the World Wide Web, and 30,000 
postcards were sent to potential researchers notifying them 
the NRA was available.

     "Using the Internet will allow OMTPE to achieve its 
goal of broadening its research base," said Dr. Charles 
Kennel, Associate Administrator for Mission to Planet 
Earth.  "By using the Internet, we can solicit proposals 
from scientists who don't normally work with us, but who 
still have something to contribute," he said.

     Normally, OMTPE and other NASA offices send NRAs by 
mail to lists of potential researchers, paying printing and 
postage costs to distribute several thousand copies.

     "We sent only postcards notifying researchers that the 
NRA was released," said Anne Novotny, an administrative 
specialist, who oversees OMTPE's NRA process.  "The 
postcards have the electronic address to download the NRA 
and a telephone number to call for those who don't have 
access to Internet, so they can request a paper copy."

     "Our normal distribution is two thousand to six 
thousand mail copies, depending on the announcement," said 
Novotny.  "By using the Internet, we could increase our 
direct notifications to thirty thousand by postcard, 
including six thousand overseas.  If we had tried to 
distribute paper copies of the NRA to that many people, the 
cost would have been much higher."

     Depending on how many people follow up with requests 
for paper copies of the NRA, the electronic distribution 
could save NASA up to $80,000, Novotny said.

     Those interested can access the NRA by going to the 
Mission to Planet Earth Home Page 
(http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/mtpe) and clicking on "MTPE 
Research Announcements."  The FTP site is 
ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/nra, and the file names begin NRA9503.

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