Overview

The four proposal types are described below. However, recall that the GMVA is scheduled during two specific sessions during the year; thus in most cases only Regular proposals should be submitted for the GMVA (Questions about GMVA DDT or Triggered proposals should be directed to the GMVA scheduler -- see the GMVA home page:

GMVA Home Page

Regular Proposals

Regular proposals are currently received on a semester basis with deadlines on the closest Wednesday to February 1 and August 1. See the Call for Proposals for the exact call period. Regular proposals are for modest total time requests on Observatory facilities. The Call for Proposals specifies the maximum number of hours a Regular proposal is allowed, which may depend on the capabilities of a facility.

Large Proposals

Large proposals are for large total time requests on Observatory facilities. The Call for Proposals specifies the maximum number of hours a Large proposal is allowed, which may depend on the capabilities of a facility. For details see the large proposal policy at:

Large Proposal Policy

Triggered Proposals

Triggered proposals for pre-planned observations of transients whose event times are unknown a priori must be submitted during one of the regular semester call periods. These proposals must (a) include specific triggering criteria, and (b) state the semesters over which the proposal is requested to remain active. Please provide this information within the textbox. Furthermore, a Triggered proposal must ask for the full amount of time needed to achieve the science goals, including both initial and follow-up observations. Proposers should not be using Director's Discretionary Time to request follow-up of an event initially observed under a Triggered proposal.

Proposals for Director's Discretionary Time

Proposals for Director's Discretionary Time (DDT) may be submitted at any time via the PST. They are intended to address targets of opportunity (ToO), high-risk/high-return exploratory proposals, or other science opportunities deemed sufficiently urgent to justify prompt action.

Target of Opportunity (ToO) proposals are for unexpected or unpredicted phenomena such as supernovae in nearby galaxies or extreme X-ray or radio flares. If you are uncertain whether the phenomenon is covered under a regular triggered proposal, please contact the NRAO via the Helpdesk.

Exploratory Proposals are normally for requests of 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. In general, there will not be a need for immediate scheduling with these proposals, but, for example, they may need to be observed in the current VLA configuration rather than waiting 16 months, or should be observed with the VLBA without waiting for an entire proposal cycle.

Education and Public Outreach (EPO) DDT proposals may also be submitted for the purpose of education and public outreach---for example, to image an iconic source or to support a educational opportunity for students. Such proposals should clearly justify the requirements for the requested time allocation and observing mode on any given instrument, and should describe the anticipated impact of the observation. 

N.B., DDT proposals cannot be joint proposals that request external telescope time.  For example, a DDT proposal cannot request HST orbits.

For additional details concerning DDT proposals see:

Directory's Discretionary Time

The Proposals Tab allows you to manage your proposals. Your proposals will be kept in a database so that you may save them and return to editing them at a later time. In order to protect your proposal information, a username and password are required to gain entry to the PST.

Each proposal is edited by entering information into a series of sections, listed in a tree structure on the left side of the page. Each section is devoted to a single aspect of the proposal.

Partially completed proposals may be saved within the PST, even with errors and/or length over-runs, allowing authors to complete their proposals at their leisure. Once the proposal is complete, it may be submitted to NRAO from within the tool. Proposals may also be withdrawn up until the proposal deadline.

If your PST web session is quiet (i.e., no server activity) for 30 minutes or more the system will automatically log you out. To resume working on the proposal, simply log back in and start editing the proposal again.

You will also be able to copy proposals previously submitted with the PST, either to revise them for resubmission during another proposal cycle, or to serve as templates for new proposals. If desired you may specify which sections to copy from a previously submitted proposal. However, if Resources for a given telescope have been changed so that and old proposal's Resources are incompatible with a new proposal deadline, then one may not copy Resources from an old proposal.

Once you have logged in and clicked on the Proposal tab, you will be presented with a list of your proposals with search and filtering options on the left-hand side. To the right will be a table consisting of the proposal name, legacy ID, title, P.I. name, submitted date, and status. Within the proposal column there exists icons to delete, validate, copy, print, submit or withdraw the proposal.

To edit a proposal, click on its highlighted title. To start a new proposal, click on the New Proposal'' button, then select the type of proposal you are creating (VLA, GBT, VLBA/HSA, or GMVA). You will be returned to the proposal list where you will find a new link representing a new, blank proposal. To edit it, click on its highlighted title.

At this point, you will be in proposal editing mode. On the left will be a tree structure with your proposals and under each proposal are links to different sections of the proposal. Each link represents a major category of proposal information. The sections are:

• General: Title, abstract, proposal type, etc.
• Authors: List of authors and contact information.
• Scientific Justification: Scientific justification.
• Technical Justification: Technical justification.
• Sources: Source positions and velocities.
• Resources: Resource information, which can be GBT-specific: back ends, receivers, modes, etc.; VLA-specific: receivers, special back ends, correlator modes, etc.; or VLBA/HSA or GMVA-specific: antennas, receivers, bit rates, processing, etc. This will depend upon the type of proposal being created.
• Sessions: Describes the amount of time requested, and how it should be divided amongst the various sources and resources. For most simple observations, each session represents a contiguous block of observing time, and the sum of the times for all sessions is the total requested observing time.
• Student Support: Information for financial support requests for students at U.S. universities or colleges. Starting with Semester 2013B (1 February 2013 deadline) the PST will not be used to submit Student Observing Support (SOS) request but an online application system will be used to collect SOS proposals from successful PIs.

To move between the sections, simply click on the desired link, or use the page-forward and back buttons on the right-hand side of the page.