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XMM-Newton Guest Observer Facility

XMM-NEWTON AO-14 BUDGET SUPPLEMENT - FAQ


This document supplements the information contained in the XMM-Newton AO-14 Budget Proposal document, in the form of questions and answers. Information on the XMM-Newton project can be found in the XMM-Newton Mission Description, in the XMM-Newton Users' Handbook (GSFC or SOC links), and in the WWW pages of the XMM-Newton GOF.

  • 1) WHERE SHOULD THE BUDGETS BE SENT, HOW MANY COPIES ARE REQUIRED, AND WHEN ARE THEY DUE?

  • 2) WHERE IS THE BUDGET FORM, AND MUST THEY BE USED?

  • 3) IS AN INSTITUTIONAL ENDORSEMENT (SIGNATURE) REQUIRED?

  • 4) WHAT IS A REASONABLE FUNDING REQUEST?

  • 5) HOW CAN THE PAYING OF DOUBLE OVERHEAD BE AVOIDED ON GRANTS FOR CO-Is AT OTHER INSTITUTIONS?

  • 6) HOW DO I INCLUDE SUBGRANTS FOR Co-Is AT DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS?

  • 7) CAN U.S. Co-Is ON FOREIGN-LED (FOREIGN PI) PROPOSALS SUBMIT BUDGETS?

  • 8) CAN BUDGETS BE SUBMITTED FOR DDT (Director's Discretionary Time) OBSERVATIONS (OR OTHER JOINT OBSERVATIONS)?

  • 9) CAN BUDGETS BE SUBMITTED FOR JOINT CHANDRA/XMM PROPOSALS ALLOCATED BY CHANDRA?

  • 10) CAN BUDGETS BE SUBMITTED FOR ARCHIVE PROPOSALS?

  • 11) CAN ONE BUDGET BE SUBMITTED TO COVER SEVERAL DIFFERENT PROPOSALS?

  • 12) WHAT DOES THE IDEAL BUDGET SUBMISSION CONTAIN?

  • 13) WHAT COMPUTER HARDWARE DO I REQUIRE?

  • 14) WHEN WILL THE RESULTS BE ANNOUNCED

  • 15 ARE THERE ITEMS I CAN NOT ASK FOR?

  • 16) WHAT ARE THE INSTITUTIONAL CERTIFICATIONS?

  • 17) ARE CVs REQUIRED?

  • 18) USEFUL WWW SITES/PAGES


    • 1) WHERE SHOULD THE BUDGETS BE SENT, HOW MANY COPIES ARE REQUIRED, AND WHEN ARE THEY DUE?
      • Send the signed original and three (3) hard copies and a CD with the electronic version, to

        XMM-Newton Guest Observer Program
        Code 662
        Building 34, Room S254
        Goddard Space Flight Center
        National Aeronautics and Space Administration
        Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001

        on 4:30 PM EDT, Wednesday, 24 July 2015.

    • 2) WHERE IS THE BUDGET FORM, AND MUST IT BE USED?
      • The budget form is entered through RPS which is the only source for the mandatory form. You must not attach your institution's own set of forms to the proposal, however a copy of your institutions forms may be submitted with the budget proposal. Additional information and instructions for filling out the budget form and budget justification can be found in the Budget Proposal document and Budget Form Instructions.

    • 3) IS AN INSTITUTIONAL ENDORSEMENT (SIGNATURE) REQUIRED?
      • Yes. NASA requires a signature for all budget submissions. The General Form must be included with both PI and institutional signatures.

    • 4) WHAT IS A REASONABLE FUNDING REQUEST?
      • For AO-14 fair-share estimates will be provided within a week after the release of this AO. If you have questions contact the XMM GOF at: xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov.

        The fair-share estimate does not include any scaling for the complexity of the proposed analysis. For complex projects, for example the full spectral-spatial analysis of a large scale extended source, the proposer can ask for more than the fair-share estimate, but the additional request must be well justified.

        Note: the funding associated with this program is intended to be one-year money - while a first no-cost extension will be granted, additional no-cost extensions are extremely unlikely to be granted.


    • 5) HOW CAN THE PAYING OF DOUBLE OVERHEADS BE AVOIDED ON FUNDS FOR CO-Is AT OTHER INSTITUTIONS?
      • Unless it is possible through your own institution, you can't. See the next entry.

    • 6) HOW DO I INCLUDE SUBGRANTS FOR Co-Is AT DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS?
      • You don't. Under NASA rules subgrants (the submission of a budget which has some funds sent directly to a second institution) are not allowed. Funds for Co-Is at separate institutions must be routed through the primary institution.

    • 7) CAN U.S. Co-Is ON FOREIGN-LED (FOREIGN PI) PROPOSALS SUBMIT BUDGETS?
      • No (but check out the ADAP - not for AO-14)

    • 8) CAN BUDGETS BE SUBMITTED FOR DDT (Director's Discretionary Time, Target of Opportunity) OBSERVATIONS?
      • No

    • 9) CAN BUDGETS BE SUBMITTED FOR JOINT CHANDRA/XMM PROPOSALS ALLOCATED BY CHANDRA (OR OTHER JOINT OBSERVATIONS)?
      • Not for AO-14.

    • 10) CAN BUDGETS BE SUBMITTED FOR ARCHIVE PROPOSALS?
      • No. Budget proposals for the use of XMM-Newton data from the public archive must be submitted to the ADAP.

    • 11) CAN ONE BUDGET BE SUBMITTED TO COVER SEVERAL DIFFERENT PROPOSALS?
      • No. Only one budget per proposal, and one proposal per budget are allowed.

    • 12) WHAT DOES THE IDEAL BUDGET SUBMISSION CONTAIN?
      • It contains:
        1. Copies of the Cover Page, General Page, and Budget Page from RPS, marked with the proposal number (provided in the ESA proposal-results e-mail), with the PI signature, and with the Institute Endorsement filled out and signed.
        2. The budget justification listing itemized budget information. The one to two page budget justification provides the rationale for the various cost items and amounts requested. Also to be included in the justification is a breakdown of the responsibility of the various investigators who are requesting funding.
        3. The four-page Scientific Justification from the observation proposal.
        4. Information about other sources of support (e.g., other active NASA grants). Forms are provided.
        5. The PI's CV.
        6. ACORN and Tax Liability Assurance Form.
        7. China Assurance Form.
        8. No additional cover letters, cardboard bindings, preprints, etc., are to be attached to the proposals.
          NOTE: Do not allow your institution to add their own cover page as the first page of the proposal. Some institution grant offices apparently feel the need to cover up a perfectly good cover page with a piece of paper which is totally useless to anyone besides themselves. We do not need such a page, we do not want such a page, and it gets in the way. If your institution absolutely needs to add such pages, they are out of luck. No additional pages beyond those specified should be included in the proposal. Violation of this rule will be grounds for rejection of the proposal.

        See the Budget Proposal document for page limitations and the page order in which the budgets are to be assembled.

        In addition, include electronic versions of these forms on a CD. The CD should contain three PDF files: the Cover Page, General Form, and Budget Forms; the Budget Justification, Current and Pending Support, and CV (combined into one file); and the four page scientific justification from the ESA observation proposal.

      • One copy of your institution's budget form, not attached to the above budget proposal, if your institution wants to submit something with a few more details.

    • 13) WHAT COMPUTER HARDWARE DO I REQUIRE?
      • All GO data is pipeline-processed by the XMM-Newton SSC (Survey Science Center) using the Science Analysis Software (SAS). This aims to deliver data products to the GO in a form where interactive SAS (public binary executable releases of the SAS tools, currently 13.5) or FTOOL data analysis can be performed. In addition, it should be possible to carry out scientific analysis of XMM-Newton data using the Chandra CIAO package. Installing some external packages for use with SAS are required (most are now distributed with the supported operating systems). Use of SAS tasks is desirable for incorporating improved calibrations into their data as the mission advances, recalculating response matrices and properly incorporating data subspace information (which is used for propagating exposure information to generated data products). No special computing requirements are required to run FTOOLS and XMM-Newton Data Products are compliant with OGIP FITS Standards.

        SAS Version 13.5 is the latest public release. This version is available for Red Hat, SuSE, and Mac OS X (see the SOC Download page).


    • 14) WHEN WILL THE RESULTS BE ANNOUNCED?
      • We hope to notify PIs of the results of the budget review in 2015 August/September.

    • 15) ARE THERE ITEMS I CAN NOT ASK FOR?
      • There are a number of items where funding through a grant is not allowed, so don't ask for them. They include, but are not limited to:
        1. Home or home office internet connection fees
        2. Professional dues (i.e., no AAS dues can be charged to a grant)
        3. Travel expenses for foreign Co-Is (e.g., you cannot use grant funds to bring a foreign Co-I to the US for the collabortation)
        4. If you have a split appointment between a US and foreign institutions, grant funds can not be used for your commute between institutions.
        5. If you are unsure whether an item is allowed, contact the GOF at: xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov
        6. As a guideline, roughly 10% of a grant may be used to support ground-based observations directly related to the scientific investigation funded by the budget proposal.

    • 16) WHAT ARE THE INSTITUTIONAL CERTIFICATIONS?
      • For the grant process, NASA requires certain certifications from institutions to be on record. Currently these are the 1) Lobbying, 2) Debarment/Suspension, and 3) Civil Rights certifications. The forms no longer need to be separately submitted. In addition, there are two additional certifications which must be submitted with the budget proposal: 4) Certification that the institution does not work with the ACORN organization (DOCX Form). 5) certification that the funds will not be used to support a collaboration with a Chinese institution (DOCX Form). Now, the institutional-endorsement signature on the General Form doubles as the institutional certification. Copies of the certification texts can be found at: Certifications.

    • 17) ARE CVs REQUIRED?
      • Yes, CVs are not optional. The CV must include a publication list with at least the most recent and/or important publications.

    • 18) Useful WWW SITES/PAGES

    If you have any questions concerning XMM-Newton and/or the budget process send e-mail to xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov



    If you have any questions concerning XMM-Newton send e-mail to xmmhelp@lists.nasa.gov