Call for Proposals to be supported via the OPTICON Trans-National Access programme in semester 2011A

Within the OPTICON contract under FP7, its Trans-National Access programme is moving towards even greater integration and coordination of the participating telescopes. As part of this move, the funding for the programme has been pooled, and the proposals for OPTICON time at all the telescopes are being reviewed together by a single international Time Allocation Committee (TAC) to ensure network-wide competition and uniform review criteria.

The call for observing time at night time telescopes supported by the OPTICON Trans-National Access is now open with a deadline of 1200 UT on 1 September 2010. The semester is centred on February 2011 to July 2011, but there are small variations at some telescopes to accommodate their normal semesters and maximise scheduling flexibility.

Proposals must meet certain EU and OPTICON rules for formal eligibility concerning team membership. Broadly speaking, the PI and at least half of the Co-I’s must be working at Institutions outside the country/ies which own the telescope. Please also note the prohibition on projects which could be applied for by the PI using the national mechanisms open to them.

Not all of the telescopes in the existing access programme are offering time in this call. The maximum number of nights available at each facility for this semester is as follows:

Nights available at each Facility in semester 2011A
Facility Maximum nights available Semester 2011A Notes
Isaac Newton Telescope (ORM, La Palma) 7 1 Feb – 31 July

 
William Herschel Telescope (ORM, La Palma) 3 1 Feb – 31 July Include required instrument configuration information in the technical case
Nordic Optical Telescope (ORM, La Palma) 20 1 Apr - 30 Sept
Liverpool Telescope (ORM, La Palma) 50 hours 1 Feb – 31 July Request hours. Robotic Telescope
Telescopio National Galileo (ORM, La Palma) 7 1 Feb – 31 July Can be service or visitor mode. Fractional nights can be requested in 1 hour blocks, assume 9hr per night
Carlos Sanchez Telescope (Obs del Teide, Tenerife) 10 1 Mar – 31 Aug  
CAHA 2.2m (Calar Alto) 20 1 Jan – 30 June No restriction
CAHA 3.5m (Calar Alto) 10 1 Jan – 30 June Grey or bright time only
Anglo-Australian Telescope. (Siding Spring) 10 1 Feb – 31 July Scientifically viable proposals that are not supported by the OPTICON TAC will be considered by the AAT TAC, but would not attract EC travel support
Observatoire de Haut Provence 1.93m 7 1 Mar – 31 Aug Scientifically viable proposals that are not supported by the OPTICON TAC will be considered by the OHP TAC, but would not attract EC travel support
Telescope Bernard Lyot (Pic du Midi) 7 1 Mar - 31 Aug  
Canada France Hawaii Telescope (Mauna Kea) 4 1 Feb – 31 July  
MPG/ESO 2.2 (La Silla) 14 1 Apr – 30 Sept  

 

Proposals to the ESO 3.5m and NTT at La Silla can not be made via the OPTICON process. However the ESO OPC encourages proposals from non-ESO countries via the normal ESO submission process. EU qualifying proposals from non-ESO countries awarded time on these telescopes via the ESO process can reasonably expect travel support from OPTICON. Contact the Project Office for details.

You can see details of the types of instruments available at these and other telescopes by following this link to the Medium Telescopes Instrumentation Suite (link available shortly).

Since the OPTICON Trans-National Access programme is limited by the EC funds available, it is possible that not all of these nights will be allocated at every facility. The precise number of nights awarded will depend on scientific ranking and operational constraints.

Requests for multiple telescopes for the same scientific project must be included in a single proposal form. Request for projects with different scientific objectives should be made on separate proposal forms.

Unless noted above, any instrument available to national users of an observatory may be requested. Please consult each observatory web-page.

Projects must be scientifically competitive and will be ranked based on scientific merit and technical feasibility by a special OPTICON international time allocation committee. OPTICON will attempt to schedule nights allocated by this committee subject to practical constraints on telescope and instrument availability. Due regard will be given to EC criteria regarding new users and users without similar national infrastructures.

Successful proposers will receive travel funds as necessary for them to take up the observing time.

For downstream processing by the individual observatories, successful proposers may be required to complete and submit either Phase 1 (application forms) or Phase 2 (detailed observing request) forms. In this situation the science case will not be re-evaluated but the forms will be used to extract practical information required for the observatory proposal reporting and scheduling databases.

Facilities not in this list are not offering OPTICON supported observing in this semester, even though they may have done so in the past and may do in the future. Some facilities have policies which allow international users to apply via their regular national proposal process or to specific international time which is not part of the OPTICON pool. Except in the special case of the ESO NTT and ESO 3.6 at La Silla, proposals made to and approved via non-OPTICON mechanisms will not qualify for OPTICON travel grant support. Note that the results of the OPTICON TAC review will be communicated to the national TACs to avoid undesirable duplication.

In the case of linked proposals (for example using national time to prepare for or follow-up an OPTICON-supported run) or where the OPTICON time available is insufficient for the project to be accomplished, please indicate your intention to make a linked application and explain why this is necessary.

The proposal software, a variant of the NORTHSTAR system already in use at several observatories, is available at the following url: http://proposal.astro-opticon.org. You are required to register for an account (only minimal information is required) and you can then create, share and complete your proposal on-line. The form has a 'read me first' section of general information and number of built in help pages. The sample 'case for support' tex file contains a summary of what information is required in the scientific case.

For general questions about the call, such as policies, rules and procedures look in our FAQ page (link in Footer below) and if this does not help you then contact John.davies_at_stfc.ac.uk.

For specific practical information about telescopes/instruments, please contact the telescope directly.