Dragon Competition: SpaceX, Heinlein Trust, and Rice

Heinlein Trust and SpaceX Announce Competition to Promote Research Innovation in Zero Gravity - SpaceRef:

The Heinlein Prize Trust announces the Microgravity Research Competition to reward innovation in the use of microgravity to advance biotech, nanotech, combustion, metallurgy, and other fields. Sponsored by the Trust and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the competition offers a $25,000 prize and transportation to and from Low Earth Orbit for the winning experiment aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. ...

The Microgravity Research Competition is open to U.S. universities and non-profits organizations with industry partners. The winning team will also get to witness the launch of their experiment from Cape Canaveral, Fla. ...

The application and judging process will be supported by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. The winner will be announced on April 18, 2009 at the Awards Banquet for the 2009 Rice Business Plan Competition hosted by the Rice Alliance.

There's more at the following sites:

Labflight: A Researcher's Guide to Microgravity

Microgravity Research Competition Flight to Space and $25,000 Grant (PDF) - It's a 24 page document that I haven't had a chance to read (you know - the blog's a hobby, it's a work day, and the youngster learned how to roll over 1 direction but not the other and thus is frustrated to no end, there being no microgravity assistance here). It looks like it has the competition details as well as background material on microgravity research.

Here's the Heinlein Prize Trust version of the press release with pictures of DragonLab, Elon Musk of SpaceX, and Art Dula of the Heinlein Trust.