Space Laboratory Associates (SLA) has been promised a $2 million grant from the state of Ohio should the nonprofit win the NASA contract it is seeking to manage scientific research aboard the U.S. portion of the international space station (ISS).

SLA is a Cleveland-based nonprofit established by the Columbia, Md.-based Universities Space Research Association and Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Institute to vie for a contract to manage research on the ISS National Laboratory Management Entity contract NASA expects to award this summer. NASA spokesman Joshua Buck said June 2 that the agency is still evaluating the proposals it received this spring and intends to announce the $15 million-a-year cooperative agreement as soon as July but no later than September. NASA’s original solicitation, released in mid-February, set a May 31 target for making the award.

The $2 million grant is being promised by the state’s Ohio Third Frontier program for the establishment of a Space Translational Research Incubator that would be located at SLA’s Cleveland headquarters.

“Ohio has a tremendous ecosystem and the Ohio Third Frontier’s strong support of the Space Translational Research Incubator will enable us to maximize the economic return of research on-board the ISS National Lab to the Nation,” SLA President Christopher Brown said in a May 24 press release announcing the grant award.

 

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