Instrumentation
Flight and bench instruments, calibration standards, detectors, and the second instrument that proves the first. Mass and power budgets are expected in the proposal, not after the award.
Research and grants
Five hundred and twelve awards, one condition
The Foundation has made 512 awards since it was filed, to 141 institutions in 31 jurisdictions. Every one carried the same condition, which has not changed since 1951 and is not negotiable: the result is published in full, without embargo, including when it is a failure.
The publication covenant
We are not being generous. We are having our instruments checked.
Publication is the cheapest possible form of peer review, and an instrument nobody can check is an instrument nobody should trust. The covenant was attached to the 2000 filing as a nine-page schedule and binds the Foundation as tightly as it binds a grantee.
Embargo
None. Not at a journal’s request, not for a press date, not for a funder.
Access
Open, permanently, in the Foundation archive as well as wherever it is published.
Negative results
Published. Two hundred and six of the 3,118 are failures, and they are indexed the same way.
Retractions
Published, with the original left in place and marked.
Intellectual property
Not retained. No royalty, no licence, no field-of-use restriction.
Median time to publish
41 days from acceptance. The figure is audited.
Exceptions granted since 2000
One, in 2011, for eleven days, on an export control determination. It is documented.
Grant record
Thirty awards from the register, one per line
The full register runs to 512 entries and is published with the annual accounts. The selection below is the one most often asked for: the awards that a later programme turned out to depend on.
| Reference | Div. | Award | Institution | Principal | Sum | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MF-INS-2000-001 | INS | Combined Raman and breakdown spectrometer, bench article | Aldern Institute of Technology | S. Errazuriz | 2.4 | closed |
| MF-ARC-2001-004 | ARC | Catalogue of the prior record, 1951–1968 | The Aldern Works | N. Vance | 0.6 | closed |
| MF-COM-2002-011 | COM | Re-hosting of the MERIDIAN model, v3 to v5 | Cordova Institute for Atmospheric Science | B. Nold | 3.1 | closed |
| MF-INS-2004-018 | INS | Flight spectrometer head, 1.9 kg, standoff 1.9 m | Aldern Institute of Technology | S. Errazuriz | 9.8 | closed |
| MF-SUR-2004-021 | SUR | Candidate site register and screening pipeline | The Aldern Works | A. Dube | 1.9 | closed |
| MF-INS-2006-036 | INS | Pulsed-neutron hydrogen spectrometer, flight article | Vesterhavn Polytechnic | T. Halvard | 14.2 | closed |
| MF-MED-2007-044 | MED | Transit dose reconstruction from published detector records | University of New Harrow | C. Reith | 2.2 | closed |
| MF-SUR-2009-058 | SUR | Geotechnical properties of five regolith simulants | Braemore College of Mines | A. Dube | 5.4 | closed |
| MF-MAT-2010-066 | MAT | Cold-welding and galling in low-pressure CO₂ | Aldern Institute of Technology | N. Farkas | 3.8 | closed |
| MF-SUR-2011-071 | SUR | Dust deposition rate on second-surface mirrors | Kestrel Flats Observatory | G. Sarr | 4.6 | closed |
| MF-INS-2012-104 | INS | Perchlorate chemistry bench and wet-chemistry cell | University of New Harrow | L. Nasrallah | 7.7 | closed |
| MF-MED-2013-118 | MED | Surface dose budget for a 600-day stay, shielded and unshielded | University of New Harrow | C. Reith | 3.3 | closed |
| MF-MAT-2014-127 | MAT | Sintering of simulant slab at 1.2 kW | Braemore College of Mines | Zhao Wenyi | 11.4 | closed |
| MF-LIF-2015-140 | LIF | Closed-loop atmosphere revitalisation, 90-day article | Thorn Laboratory for Closed Ecology | A. Vogt | 18.9 | closed |
| MF-COM-2016-152 | COM | Entry, descent and landing dispersions for nine sites | Cordova Institute for Atmospheric Science | P. Ramanathan | 6.1 | closed |
| MF-SUR-2017-168 | SUR | Shortlist reduction: nine sites, ranked against eleven criteria | The Aldern Works | A. Dube | 2.8 | closed |
| MF-ARC-2018-181 | ARC | DAYBOOK: open archive, negative results included | The Aldern Works | N. Vance | 4.0 | open |
| MF-PRO-2019-194 | PRO | Structures trade study for a crewed transfer vessel | Sablefield Aerospace Works | T. Mendes-Ruiz | 9.2 | closed |
| MF-LIF-2019-201 | LIF | Water recovery at 96 per cent, 600-day article | Thorn Laboratory for Closed Ecology | A. Vogt | 21.6 | open |
| MF-PRO-2020-214 | PRO | Reactor-electric power and propulsion stage, concept freeze | Sablefield Aerospace Works | N. Habib | 34.0 | closed |
| MF-MAT-2021-228 | MAT | Landing-pad slab, qualification article, 12 m × 12 m | Braemore College of Mines | Zhao Wenyi | 16.7 | open |
| MF-PRO-2022-241 | PRO | LB-1 pressure hull, long-lead forgings and lay-up tooling | Sablefield Aerospace Works | T. Mendes-Ruiz | 48.3 | open |
| MF-COM-2022-247 | COM | Flight software verification, formal methods where affordable | Institute for Memory Systems, Oster | L. Marchenko | 12.4 | open |
| MF-PRO-2023-259 | PRO | Tender cargo stage, qualification flight article | Sablefield Aerospace Works | N. Habib | 57.8 | open |
| MF-SUR-2023-263 | SUR | Thessaly Bench plant layout and keep-out survey | The Aldern Works | A. Dube | 3.4 | open |
| MF-MED-2024-277 | MED | Bone and vestibular protocol, 18-month analogue | University of New Harrow | C. Reith | 13.1 | open |
| MF-INS-2024-281 | INS | Calibration targets and standards for surface instruments | Hallowell Optical Works | S. Errazuriz | 2.9 | open |
| MF-LIF-2025-296 | LIF | Crop article, 40 m², 1/3 g centrifuge cross-check | Thorn Laboratory for Closed Ecology | A. Vogt | 19.4 | open |
| MF-MAT-2025-302 | MAT | Seal life in abrasive dust, 10,000-cycle article | Aldern Institute of Technology | N. Farkas | 8.6 | open |
| MF-PRO-2026-311 | PRO | Orbital assembly rehearsal, full-scale wet mock-up | Sablefield Aerospace Works | T. Mendes-Ruiz | 41.2 | open |
| Thirty awards shown of 512 in the register | 390.8 | |||||
Awards made before 14 March 2000 carry a PR reference rather than an MF one. They were catalogued retrospectively in 2001 and are listed in the prior record.
What we fund
Eight divisions, and a strong preference for the unphotographed
INS
COM
Computation and modelling
Atmospheric and entry modelling, verification of flight software, and — as in 1989 — the machine-level work that a model is actually waiting on. Find out what you are waiting for before you ask us to buy anything.
SUR
Surface survey
Geodesy, regolith mechanics, hydration, opacity. The survey programme closed in 2021, so awards here now support the three shortlisted sites rather than looking for a fourth.
MAT
Materials and in-situ resources
Sintering, seals, coatings, abrasion, and anything that lets a surface plant build with what is under it. Ten-thousand-cycle articles preferred to elegant ones.
LIF
Life support and closed systems
Closed ecology at any scale, water recovery, crop articles, and the scrubber failures that calibrate them. The Foundation will fund a deliberate failure and has.
MED
Human physiology, long duration
Dose, bone, vestibular and psychological work over 600-day horizons. Human-subject protocols go to the ethics seat on the board before the award panel sees them.
PRO
Propulsion, power and structures
Reactor-electric power, transfer stages, pressure vessels, orbital assembly. The largest awards and the smallest number of them.
ARC
Archive and publication
Keeping the covenant working: indexing, permanence, negative-result publication, and making a 1959 coupon library legible to somebody in 2026.
How to apply
Six pages, twice a year, and no forms on this website
There are two rounds a year, closing on 1 March and 1 September. Proposals are six pages including figures; the panel does not read a seventh, and the Foundation would rather you spent the effort on the budget than on the prose.
What the panel wants
- The question, in one paragraph, with the number you expect to produce.
- What the number is for — which programme, which decision, which specification.
- What you are actually waiting on: a machine, a sample, a facility, a person, a window.
- A budget to the nearest ten thousand credits, and what happens if we fund half.
- Where the result will be published, and the date by which it will be.
What the panel does not want
- Letters of support. We will read the work instead.
- A request to retain intellectual property, which we will decline.
- An embargo, however short, however well argued.
- A proposal whose success condition is a further proposal.
Reviews are returned in writing to every applicant, funded or not, within ninety days of the round closing. Declined proposals may be resubmitted once.
There is no application form. There never has been, and the Director of Research has declined to introduce one on four separate occasions.
Proposals are submitted on paper or by post to the Aldern Works, addressed to the Director of Research. The Foundation is aware that this is antique and considers it a feature: a proposal that is worth six pages is worth an envelope.
Rounds close
1 March · 1 September
Reviews returned
Within 90 days, in writing, to everybody
Typical award
2 to 20 million credits
Success rate
19 per cent, and published each round
Divisions
INS · COM · SUR · MAT · LIF · MED · PRO · ARC
Address
Director of Research, The Aldern Works, Building 4, Wraith Basin Road, Aldern County