XMM-NEWTON AO-5 BUDGET SUPPLEMENT - FAQ
This document supplements the information contained in the XMM-Newton AO-5 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 VILSPA 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 ARE THE BUDGET FORMS,
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?
- 9) CAN BUDGETS BE SUBMITTED FOR
ARCHIVE PROPOSALS?
- 10) CAN ONE BUDGET BE SUBMITTED TO
COVER SEVERAL DIFFERENT PROPOSALS?
- 11) WHAT DOES THE IDEAL BUDGET
SUBMISSION CONTAIN?
- 12) WHAT COMPUTER HARDWARE DO I
REQUIRE?
- 13) WHEN WILL THE RESULTS BE
ANNOUNCED
- 14) WHAT ARE THE INSTITUTIONAL
CERTIFICATIONS?
- 15) USEFUL WWW SITES/PAGES
- 1) WHERE SHOULD THE BUDGETS BE SENT, HOW MANY COPIES ARE REQUIRED,
AND WHEN ARE THEY DUE?
- Ten hard copies, to
XMM-Newton Guest Observer Program
by/on 4:30 PM EST, Friday, 17 March 2006. Electronic submission is required for the RPS forms by the same date and time.
Code 662
Building 2, Room 250
Goddard Space Flight Center
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001
- Ten hard copies, to
- 2) WHERE IS THE BUDGET FORM, AND MUST IT BE USED?
- New for AO-5, 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. 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 (or Lead Co-I) and institutional signatures. Separate institutional signatures on Subgrant General Forms are required for any subgrants/subcontracts which will go directly to Co-Is at institutions other than that of the PI/Lead Co-I.
- 4) WHAT IS A REASONABLE FUNDING REQUEST?
- The NASA XMM-Newton AO-5 Budget Solicitation Letter from Dr. Wilton T. Sanders lists the rough number of proposals to be funded by this budget process and the rough level of total funding. The requested amount should have some reasonable association with the average value.
- 5) HOW CAN THE PAYING OF DOUBLE OVERHEADS BE AVOIDED ON GRANTS FOR
CO-Is AT OTHER INSTITUTIONS?
- Submit the grant request as a subgrant, see the next entry.
- 6) HOW DO I INCLUDE SUBGRANTS FOR Co-Is AT DIFFERENT
INSTITUTIONS?
- If funds are being requested for a Co-I at an institution different from that of the PI (or Lead Co-I of a foreign PI proposal), additional Subgrant General Form and Subgrant Budget Form information can be entered in RPS. The hardcopy submission Subgrant General Form(s) must be signed. In addition to the RPS forms, include a separate budget justification and current and pending support forms in the PI's package. We will fund the Co-Is directly, so there will be no double overhead.
- 7) CAN U.S. Co-Is ON FOREIGN-LED (FOREIGN PI) PROPOSALS SUBMIT BUDGETS?
- NASA will consider modest (at the 50 percent level compared to US PI proposals) requests for funding. Only one budget will be allowed for each proposal, so US Co-Is on a foreign PI proposal must select a Lead Co-I for the budget process.
- 8) CAN BUDGETS BE SUBMITTED FOR DDT (Director's Discretionary Time)
OBSERVATIONS?
- Yes. Follow the same instructions.
- 9) 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 ADP program.
- 10) CAN ONE BUDGET BE SUBMITTED TO COVER SEVERAL
DIFFERENT PROPOSALS?
- No. Only one budget per proposal, and one proposal per budget are allowed.
- 11) WHAT DOES THE IDEAL BUDGET SUBMISSION CONTAIN?
- It contains:
- 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 GO signature, and with the Institute Endorsement filled out and signed.
- The four-page Scientific Justification from the observation proposal.
- Itemized budget information for the PI (or Lead Co-I) and any Co-Is; use the form provided, optionally with your institution's own forms in addition placed at the end of the proposal.
- Budget forms and signed Subgrant General Forms for Co-Is at institutions other than that of the PI/Lead Co-I for which funding is being requested.
- BRIEF budget justifications for the PI (or Lead Co-I) and any Co-I to be funded separately, not to exceed one page, providing the rationale for the various cost items and amounts requested.
- A breakdown of the responsibility of the various investigators who are requesting funding.
- Information about other sources of support (e.g., other active NASA grants). Forms are provided.
- No additional cover letters, cardboard bindings, preprints, etc.,
are to be included.
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, submit the Cover Page, General Form (both Budget PI and subgrant), and Budget Forms (both Budget PI and subgrant) through RPS. Only the PI/Lead Co-I should electronically submit these forms. Subgrant Co-Is must provide their signed General Form to the PI/Lead Co-I for inclusion with the hardcopy submission.
- It contains:
- 12) 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 6.1)
or FTOOL (using the current FTOOLS v5.2 release) 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 6.5.0 is the latest public release (17 August 2005 with a patch release in November 2005). This version is available for Red Hat, SuSE, Solaris, OSF1 and Darwin. The Mac version has been rigorously tested and gives satisfactory results compared to other platforms. This latest release (on all platforms) can be downloaded from the SOC. A machine of 256MB RAM is the minimum requirement, with 512MB or greater highly recommended.
-
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 6.1)
or FTOOL (using the current FTOOLS v5.2 release) 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.
- 13 WHEN WILL THE RESULTS BE ANNOUNCED?
- We hope to notify PIs of the results of the budget review in 2006 May.
- 14) 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. Now, the institutional-endorsement signature on the General Form doubles as the institutional certification. Copies of the certification texts can be found at: Certifications.
- 15) Useful WWW SITES/PAGES
- The NASA XMM-Newton AO-5 Budget Solicitation Letter from Dr. Wilton T. Sanders
- The XMM-Newton GOF at NASA/GSFC
- The XMM-Newton Mission Description
- The Budget Proposal document
- The Budget Proposal ABC Guide
- The Budget Form Instructions
- The XMM-Newton RPS Help Page
- The RPS system
- Documents and Forms, FTP or HTML
- The NASA XMM-Newton AO-5 "Dear Colleague" Letter (from the science proposal AO) from Dr. Wilton T. Sanders
- The NASA "Guidebook for Proposers"
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 - 1) WHERE SHOULD THE BUDGETS BE SENT, HOW MANY COPIES ARE REQUIRED,
AND WHEN ARE THEY DUE?