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> General Proposal Information |
General Proposal Information
Information on requirements for submitting GBT proposals along with the review
and scheduling process are summarized under the following topics.
The GBT proposal deadlines are the same as the NRAO VLA and
VLBA deadlines, namely February 1, June
1, and October 1of each year. Each proposal
deadline accepts proposals for scheduling in the next trimester. The year
is broken into trimesters beginning with February 1 of the year. For example,
the first trimester is formally the period from February 1 through May
31 (see Trimester and Proposal
Code Nomenclature below for nomenclature) and normally proposals accepted
from the Oct 1 deadline (the one previous to the Feb 1 date) would be scheduled during this four month
period. Any proposals that have been approved and cannot be scheduled
in the next trimester will be held and scheduled at the next available opportunity.
Any proposal rejected from a particular deadline must be re-submitted at
the next deadline to be considered for a future trimester.
Effective October 1, 2003 NRAO proposal submissions will be considered
either a regular submission or a Rapid
Response Science submission. Rapid Response Science falls into three categories:
- Known Transient Phenomena (KTP) - These proposals will
request time to observe phenomena that are predictable in general, but not
in specific detail. For example, a proposal to observe the next flaring X-ray
binary that meets certain criteria would be included in this category. These proposals are to be submitted during one of the regular calls for proposals and peer reviewed along with all regularly submitted proposals.
- Exploratory Time (ET) - These proposals are for small amounts of time, typically a few hours or less, in response to a recent discovery, possibly to facilitate future submission of a larger proposal.
For example an exciting new pulsar may be discovered at another telescope and it may be desirable to confirm the detection
before committing or proposing for a much larger amount of observing time.
All of these proposals are reviewed by the GBT Proposal Selection Committee and a decision is usually made within 1-2 weeks.
- Target of Opportunity (ToO) - These proposals
are for true targets of opportunity--unexpected or unpredicted phenomena such
as supernovae in nearby galaxies. All of these proposals are reviewed by the GBT Proposal Selection Committee and a decision is usually made within 1-2 weeks.
See the link at Rapid Response
Science for a full description of the requirements and proprietary periods.
Rapid Response Science requests of type 1 (Known Transient Phenomena)
must be submitted during the regular trimester call for proposals. Rapid Response
Science requests of type 2 (Exploratory Time) and
type 3 (Target of Opportunity) can be submitted at
any time. The new NRAO Proposal Submission Tool must be used for any type of
Rapid Response Science requests (see NRAO
Proposal Submission Tool Cookbook for the details).
Proposal documentation, statistical information and proposal
codes all reference specific trimesters by a code of the following form nnX
where nn is the last two digits of the year and X is one of A, B
or C. A, B and C refer to the first, second
and third trimester of the year respectively. In particular A
denotes February 1 through May 31, B denotes June 1 through Sep 30 and
C denotes Oct 1 through Jan 31.
GBT Proposal codes take on the format, GBTnnX-NNN, where nnX is the trimester
code and NNN is a sequentially assigned number for the particular proposal
deadline.
GBT proposals are submitted using a software program called
the GBT Proposal Submission Tool. An overview of the use of this tool for submitting
proposals can be found at the link GBT
Proposal Submission Tool Cookbook. Important points to remember:
- All proposals must be submitted using the NRAO
Proposal Submission Tool . This includes all forms of Rapid Response Science
requests. See GBT
Proposal Submission Tool Cookbook for a discussion of how to submit Rapid
Response Science Requests.
- The title is limited to 80 characters. Scientific and technical justification is limited to four pages. Only one attachement is allowed.
- Proposal requesting use of the GBT for VLBI (including VLBA) experiments
must NOT be submitted using the NRAO Proposal Submission tool but must be submitted
through the normal
VLBA/VLBI
submission process.
- Deadline for acceptance of the proposal will vary with the particular trimester
(it is normally the first day of the fourth month preceding the trimester
observing dates). For example the deadline for submitting proposals
for the A trimester (observing period Feb 1 - May 31) will normally be the
preceding October 1. The specific deadline will be published in each Call
for Proposals announcement, which will be published approximately one
month before the deadline.
- Note that only black and white figures will be sent to the referees. Any color figures submitted
will be reproduced as black and white.
- Any proposal which requests use of GBT for short spacings with VLA observations must submit separate GBT and VLA proposals.
The GBT proposal should specifically state at the end of the abstract that this is a combined GBT and VLA submission.
A very brief outline of the steps followed
at the close of each proposal deadline is described in chronological order.
- Immediately upon the close of the deadline (a) basic proposal information
is transferred to a database, (b) hard copies are made of all proposals received
and (c) a very cursory check is made for any obvious omissions or gross errors.
- All proposals are assigned to referees based on scientific expertise of
the referees and the details of each proposal. All referees are external reviewers,
i.e. outside NRAO. Every attempt is made to assign five referees to
each proposal. Copies of the appropriate proposals are sent by FedEx overnight
to each of the referees. (1) and (2) take about 1-2 weeks.
- Proposals may also be distributed to GBT scientific staff for a technical
evaluation. This evaluation checks that the equipment and observing
mode requests are feasible and optimal, and that integration times are accurate.
- Within 1 to 2 days of sending the proposal copies to the referees, instructions
along with a template to be used for their reviews are emailed to each of
the referees. The referees are asked to supply a review for each proposal
that includes:
- A rating based on scientific merit. Beginning with the 04B trimester the
suggested scale is 1 (outstanding) to 9 (reject) where qualitatively 9=poor,
5=average, 3=good, 2=excellent and 1=outstanding. Prior to trimester 04B
the rating scheme went from 1 (reject) to 5 (outstanding).
- A recommended percentage of requested time.
- Overall comments on strengths, weaknesses, omissions, or errors, etc.,
on arriving at the rating.
The referees are given a deadline to return their reviews The time between
sending out the email template and the receipt of all the reviews is usually
about 1 to 1.5 months.
- Once all referee reviews have been received, a brief check for completeness
of the reviews is made and the review details are transferred to a database.
Reports are prepared for the Scheduling committee.
- The Scheduling Committee meets about two weeks after all reviews have been
received. Proposals are ranked by a weighted average of the ratings. The ratings
are weighted using the individual referee averages and rms.
The Committee groups all proposals into three categories based on referee
ratings.
- Group A proposals are chosen from the highest ranked
to fill the available observing time for the particular trimester. These
proposals are generally assured of telescope time.
- Group B proposals are provisionally accepted with no
allotment of observing time beginning in trimester 04C. These proposals will be kept open for one
trimester only and if they cannot be assigned time that term, they will
be dropped from the queue and the proposer notified. The GBT is scheduled
dynamically according to the weather, and the number of proposals selected
each term is based on statistical norms for weather conditions. The Group
B proposals allow for variations of weather from the norm. For example,
if the trimester has higher water vapor conditions than normal, there
may be more low frequency time available, and some of the low frequency
Class B proposals may be scheduled. Conversely, if weather conditions
are better than normal, some of the high frequency proposals in Class
B might be scheduled. Since Class B proposals are at the mercy of the
weather and there is no guarantee of time, proposers who wish to improve
their chances of scheduling may wish to revise and resubmit their proposals
at the next deadline. If the initial Class B proposal is ultimately scheduled,
the resubmitted proposal can be withdrawn. Proposals prior to 04C with a group B designation were guaranteed the time allotted to them.
- Group C proposals are the lowest ranked by the referees
or may have a technical problem that renders them infeasible. They are
awarded no observing time and are being dropped from the queue. Proposers
who wish to pursue the project should revise and resubmit the proposal.
Although the Committee primarily follows the referee ratings for assignment
of telescope time, an attempt is made to take into consideration unusual or
extenuating circumstances arising in the review process such as instrument
limitations or possible referee misunderstandings, and conflicts with other
proposals.
- After the deliberations of the Scheduling Committee all proposal investigators
are notified of the status of their proposals by email. This usually occurs
about a week following the meeting
.
- All proposals that have been granted observing time are placed into a queue
for scheduling consideration (see Scheduling
Process)
Updated: Sep 14, 2007.