SARA : Senior Advisor for Research & Analysis
Dr. Pendleton in front of Spaceship One at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Meet Dr. Yvonne Pendleton, Senior Adviser for Research and Analysis (SARA).
Welcome to the SARA webpage! This site contains information related to NASA's Science Research Programs, including Astrophysics, Planetary Science, Heliophysics and Earth Science. The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in which all these disciplines live, is intent upon maximizing the science return from every R & A dollar. We invite you to be part of that process by communicating your ideas and concerns through this website. Contact SARA
The Research and Analysis (R & A) Program
Broadly defined, R & A covers the concept studies that provide the science basis for a mission, the necessary technology and techniques for implementing the mission, the calibration, validation, and analysis of data as a mission is underway, and the analysis of archived data after a mission ends. The ultimate goal is to create new knowledge as we explore the Universe, and to use that knowledge for the benefit of all humankind. A more detailed description of the many R & A program elements can be found in the ROSES section of the NSPIRES website (select "Solicitations" then "Open Solicitations" then "NNH07ZDA001N").
Within the Science Mission Directorate, the Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis (SARA) position has been created to focus specifically on the operation and balance of NASA's science research and data analysis programs. The SARA position provides the Associate Administrator with an independent overview across all science divisions concerning the balance of programs and the areas in need of support. Dr. Yvonne Pendleton, formerly of the NASA Ames Research Center, is the new Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis (SARA). As a research scientist herself, Dr. Pendleton brings to the position a clear understanding of the needs of the community plus a strong desire to augment the science return from NASA's mission enabling research and data analysis. Frequently heard in townhall meetings these days is the SMD philosophy that science does not result from the launch of a mission or the collection of data. Science only occurs through the analysis and understanding of that data. Therefore, healthy mission science teams and data analysis programs must accompany every successful mission. The SARA position will support healthy mission science and data programs across the Science Mission Directorate. In general, restoring the health of NASA's R & (D)A programs is a very high SMD priority.
Supporting Dr. Pendleton at NASA headquarters is Dr. Max Bernstein, an astrochemist from NASA's Ames Research Center. While at Ames, Yvonne and Max worked together for many years as collaborators on questions of interstellar astrochemistry, and later teamed as the Division Chief and Deputy Science Chief for the Space Science and Astrobiology Division (2005-2007).
SARA works with the Division Directors and Paul Hertz, the Senior Advisor for Science Process and Ethics, to balance the research programs across the Science Mission Directorate.
For more information on the activities within the Divisions, including the Flight Programs, please visit the SMD home page. For information pertaining to the Science Mission Directorate's organization and leadership, please view our organizational chart.
How to Navigate this website efficiently!
This web site serves as a resource for current information about the R & A program as well as a forum for dialogue with the scientific community. Your input will be of great value as we streamline procedures. Please send suggestions to us here. In addition there will be regular progress updates in the form of a letter from SARA. If you want to meet in person, check the Events Calendar link or visit the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters when your travels take you to Washington, D.C.
Research program specific questions should be directed to the relevant program officer and that information can be found here. However, if your question is of a more general nature or remains unresolved on a timescale that seems too long to you, please do not hesitate to contact SARA via the contact page. There you will also find an email sign-up form to alert you to updates to this site. It is important to sign up here because in the future we will not use the NSPIRES explorer list for these updates. NSPIRES will continue to be used as a conduit for solicitation updates, but it will not be used to broadcast updates to this page.
A table of programs and their status can be found at Grant Stats; this page is being developed so some divisions may have more information listed initially than others. Keep watching.
Any grievance brought to SARA will be kept strictly confidential. We need your input to know the areas to repair, so speak freely. At the same time, please include any positive experiences you have had with people or procedures as we smooth out the rough spots. Your ideas and experiences are extremely valuable to this process. In fact, they will inform future improvements!
We have created a "how to" page to simplify your life. Topics
currently include "How to become a reviewer, How to submit proposals via Grants.gov, etc." Useful
links and pdf files can be found in the library. Please suggest topics to be added to each of these pages. Your insight will help us help others.