SMD Community Town Hall Meetings

Upcoming Meetings

Check back for an updated schedule.

Past Meetings

March 13, 2024

Science Mission Directorate Budget Town Hall

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate held a Budget Town Hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Nicky Fox and her leadership team at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.

February 20, 2024

Inclusion Plan Requirements Town Hall 3

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Inclusion Plan Community of Practice held a webinar to discuss requirements for and evaluation of Inclusion Plans in ROSES-2024. Inclusion, defined as the full participation, belonging, and contribution of organizations and individuals, is a core NASA value and SMD has been piloting the addition of Inclusion Plans for some program elements in Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES). At their core, Inclusion Plans are designed to raise awareness of barriers to creating and sustaining positive, inclusive working environments and to get proposers actively thinking about ways to foster diverse and inclusive practices for their research and mission teams.

Starting in ROSES-2023, Inclusion Plan requirements were standardized for all participating program elements. Beginning in ROSES-2024, the evaluation processes for these plans has also been standardized. The webinar (1) discussed the motivation and goals of Inclusion Plans, (2) described Inclusion Plan requirements and how they differ from previous years, and (3) discussed how Inclusion Plans will be evaluated.

For more resources for Inclusion Plans, please visit: https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/inclusion

January 31, 2024

Science Mission Directorate Quarterly Community Town Hall

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate held their quarterly community town hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Nicky Fox and her leadership team at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, January 31, 2024.

October 19, 2023

Science Mission Directorate Quarterly Community Town Hall

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate held the quarterly community town hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Nicky Fox and her leadership team.

September 20, 2023

Heliophysics Division Town Hall

The Heliophysics Town Hall consisted of Division presentations on a focused set of topics and an open question and answer session. The discussion topics were selected based on current NASA activities and recent community input. They include but are not limited to Division Staffing, Open Science at NASA, State of the Heliophysics System Observatory (including Senior Review outcomes), and the Heliophysics Big Year and Eclipse activities.

July 27, 2023

Science Mission Directorate Quarterly Community Town Hall July 27

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate held the quarterly community town hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Nicky Fox and her leadership team. Members of SMD, the science community, academia, the media, and the public were invited to participate.

April 6, 2023

Follow-on SMD Budget Community Town Hall - Question and Answer Session

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate will held a follow-on community town hall question and answer session focused on the FY24 budget with Associate Administrator for Science Nicky Fox and her leadership team at 1:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, Members of SMD, the science community, academia, the media, and the public are invited to participate.

March 23, 2023

Science Mission Directorate Budget Community Town Hall

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate held a community town hall meeting focused on the FY24 budget with Associate Administrator for Science Nicky Fox and her leadership team.

March 6, 2023

Heliophysics Virtual Town Hall

The Heliophysics Town Hall started with a division update from Dr. Nicola Fox. It included discussions on current activities of interest to the community and an open question and answer session. The update and discussions include but are not limited to Heliophysics budget, GDC selections, the Heliophysics Big Year, and a Research and Analysis (R&A) update.

January 18, 2023

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate held a community town hall meeting with Acting Associate Administrator for Science Sandra Connelly and her leadership team to discuss NASA’s science program accomplishments and upcoming activities in the new year.

November 4, 2022

SMD Community Town Hall on Psyche IRB Findings & Recommendation

SMD hosted a community town hall to discuss the findings and recommendations of a report by the Psyche mission independent review board. The board, initiated by NASA and JPL in July 2022, examined the causes of the Psyche mission missing its planned launch opportunity this year.

October 24, 2022

Heliophysics Virtual Town Hall

The Heliophysics Town Hall started with a division update from Dr. Nicola Fox. It included discussions on current activities of interest to the community and an open question and answer session. The update and discussions include but are not limited to the Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) mission, including the GDC Independent Review Board report, which will soon be posted here, the Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling mission, and a Research and Analysis update.

Science Career Path Tool Town Hall Meeting October 20, 2022

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate will hold a community town hall on the NASA Science Career Path Tool at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Thursday, October 20. This town hall will be focused on the Science Career Path Tool, an interactive online tool that features five distinct science career tracks and summarizes the common roles across the NASA science workforce. The tool can assist scientists, managers, students, and prospective employees to NASA in their awareness of career opportunities, help plan and navigate careers, and determine training and development needs to better prepare them for different roles.

SMD Community Town Hall October 6, 2022

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate held a community town hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Thomas H. Zurbuchen and his leadership team on Thursday, October 6 to discuss updates to NASA’s science program and share the current status of NASA activities. Members of SMD, the science community, academia, the media, and the public were invited to participate.

June 15 and September 12, 2022

A.32 ICESat2 DAPR Virtual Town Hall Meetings

Two virtual town hall meetings on the implementation of dual-anonymous peer review for A.32 ICESat2 occurred on June 15 and September 12. The information below has also been added to A.32 ICESat2 as Section 6.1. New text is in bold. The NOI and proposal due dates remain unchanged. See https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/dual-anonymous-peer-review for general information about DAPR.

The first ICESat2 town hall was held on Wednesday June 15 at 12 pm Eastern Time, and the second on Monday September 12 at 3pm Eastern Time. A recording of one of the town halls and slides will be provided online prior to the proposal deadline.

The town halls: (1) discussed the motivation for switching to dual-anonymous peer review, (2) explained how dual-anonymous peer reviews work, and (3) described how to write proposals that are compatible with dual-anonymous peer review. Attendees had the opportunity to anonymously ask questions to the panelists. Attendance at the town hall was anonymous and your name wasn't visible to other attendees. The Q&A portal is: https://nasa.cnf.io/sessions/hyb3/.

August 18, 2022

Planetary Science Division Townhall – Decadal Survey Initial Response

NASA’s Planetary Science Division (PSD) held a virtual community townhall Thursday, August 18th, 2022, from 2 to 4 p.m. (Eastern). This townhall was a forum for Dr. Lori Glaze, PSD Director, to provide the agency’s initial public response to the NASEM Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023–2032. Public questions were addressed at the end of the presentation.

The townhall slides and recording are posted here and at: https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/documents.

August 17, 2022

SMD Community Town Hall

The Science Mission Directorate held a community town hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Thomas H. Zurbuchen and his leadership team to discuss updates to NASA’s science program and share current status of NASA activities.

Download the presentation here.
Watch the August 17, 2022 Town Hall (YouTube)

April 21, 2022

Earth Science Division Community Forum

As NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) moves into the implementation of the Decadal Survey recommendations with development of the Earth System Observatory, ESD leadership will regularly update the community on these activities, the current Program of Record, and other Earth science news in a series of ESD Community Forums. This meeting was virtual-only via WebEx. For more information please visit https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/esd-community-forum.

April 19, 2022

SMD Community Town Hall

The Science Mission Directorate held a community town hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Thomas H. Zurbuchen and his leadership team to discuss updates to NASA’s science program and share current status of NASA activities.

March 21-25, 2022

Space Science Week at the National Academies

Though not SMD town hall meetings, we thought you might be interested in the meetings of Space Studies Board committees of the National Academies. All meetings were virtual. For more information, see https://www.nationalacademies.org/ssb/space-studies-board.

Table of start-end dates, committees, and notes for Space Science Week at the National Academies (March 21-25, 2022).

February 8, 2022

SMD Community Town Hall

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate held a community town hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen and the leadership team to discuss updates to NASA’s science program and the current status of NASA activities.

Virtual NASA Astrophysics Events from AAS239

Many Astrophysics Division activities originally scheduled for the now cancelled AAS239 meeting will occur virtually. See https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/events-at-aas239.

January 19, 2022

Living with the Star Virtual Meeting

The annual briefing for the NASA Heliophysics Living With a Star (LWS) program that would normally be held during the Fall AGU meeting took place as a Webex session on January 19, 2022.

The agenda for the Town Hall is:

  • LWS Program Overview
  • LWS Science – Update and Focused Science Topics for ROSES-2022
  • Space Weather Update
  • LPAG Report on 2021 Activities
  • LWS Architecture Study
  • Mission Updates
  • Wrap-up/Questions

January 26, 2022

Scientific Information Policy Virtual Meeting

The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has released SPD-41: Scientific Information policy for the Science Mission Directorate along with a Request for Information (RFI) about changes and implementation of this policy. To help provide further information about the policy and answer questions from the community, NASA SMD hosted a townhall on January 26, 2022.

October 21, 2021

Earth Science Division Community Forum

As NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) moves into the implementation of the Decadal Survey recommendations with development of the Earth System Observatory, ESD leadership will regularly update the community on these activities, the current Program of Record, and other Earth science news in a series of ESD Community Forums. For more information see https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/esd-community-forum.

October 18, 2021

NASA Science Quarterly Town Hall Meeting

NASA's Science Mission Directorate held a community town hall meeting with Associate Administrator for Science Thomas H. Zurbuchen and his leadership team to discuss updates to NASA's science program and share the current status of NASA activities.

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