XMM-NEWTON PROPOSAL & PLANNING TOOLS
ABC Guide for Budget Proposals
So, you want to submit a budget proposal to obtain funding to analyze your XMM-Newton AO-8 accepted observations (or AO-7 C target, ToO, or joint XMM/Chandra proposal). Here is a list of steps to go through. The steps are roughly in order, although there will be some iteration in the middle.
1. Determine whether you are eligible to receive funding
NASA funding for the analysis of XMM-Newton GO observations is limited to scientists whose primary affiliation is with an Institution in the United States. US PIs are eligible as are the US Co-Is on proposals where the science PI is associated with a foreign institution (with reduced funding in the latter case, about 50 cents on the dollar). If you are planning on leaving the US before the grant period will begin you may transfer the budget responsibility to a US Co-I, but the proposal will then have a foreign PI subject to the reduced funding. If you are now outside of the US but are planning on moving to a US institution before the grant period will start then contact us to determine eligibility.
1a. For foreign PI proposals select a Lead PI for the budget
Only one budget may be submitted for any accepted science proposal. Therefore, if a foreign PI proposal has multiple US Co-Is then a Lead Co-I must be chosen for the budget process.
1b. If you are not allowed by your institution to be a PI on a budget then delegate the responsibility
If you can't be a PI on a grant, for instance if you are a graduate student, then delegate the responsibility to someone who can (your major professor, for instance).
2. Determine whether you need to submit a budget now
PIs (or Lead Co-Is) with observation proposals with only C priority targets, except for AO-7 or AO-8 C-target proposals with scheduled observations, should not submit budget proposals during this Call for Budget Proposals but should wait until a target has been scheduled for observation. All proposals with A, B, or T targets should have their budgets submitted at this time.
3. Get your Fair-Share budget estimate
As of AO-7, fair-share estimates have once again beeen provided. For US PIs a notification e-mail will be sent out by 13 February. For US Co-Is of foreign PI proposals, the Co-Is must designate a lead Co-I who should contact the XMM GOF at xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov for the estimate, starting 13 February.
4. Determine what your budget request will be
Presumably in cooperation with your Co-Is and your institution's grants administrators you must come up with a budget which should have some reasonable relationship to the availability of funding as indicated by the fair-share estimate. This will typically be painful as there are never enough funds to support all grants at the levels which are desired.
5. Get the budget form numbers from your grants administrators
This will require them to take a look at the budget summary form (A.K.A. the Budget Form) in RPS.
6. Compile the ancillary information into a single PDF file
The components of the file must be in the following order.
Budget Justification: Write a short Budget Justification. In a one to two page budget justification include enough detail to justify the requested expenditures. Note the requirement for a more complete description of travel and equipment requests. PIs with joint US and foreign affiliations must list the fraction of time spent in the US as well as the fraction of support provided by US institutions. The expected duration of the US appointment should also be listed. Note that GO funds cannot be used to pay for the commute between the foreign and US institution.
CV: Prepare a short CV (1 or 2 pages).
Current and Pending Support: Prepare lists of Current and Pending Support. List all of the grants from which you are currently receiving funding as well as those which are pending.
Assemble these three documents into a single PDF file for uploading.
7. Subgrants are no longer allowed
Following instructions from NASA HQ, the use of direct subgrants from NASA to fund co-investigators at secondary institutions is no longer allowed. Funding of Co-Is at other institutions must be through the primary institution.
8. Enter proposal information in the RPS (via ARK) system
RPS is a web-based proposal data entry and submission system of the HEASARC. For the XMM-Newton budget process there are three forms which must be filled out and electronically submitted. These are the Cover Page, the General Form, and the Budget Form. Along with filling out and submitting these forms, two PDF files must also be uploaded. These files are the scientific justification from the ESA observation proposal submission (only the four or five page scientific justification, NOT the full set of forms) and the ancillary file with the budget narrative, CV, and current and pending support. There is an RPS Help Page with detailed instructions for filling out the forms.
8a. Electronically submit the proposal by RPS
When the forms are completely filled out and you are satisfied with them, submit them along with the scientific justification and ancillary files via RPS. With a complete submission, RPS will produce a postscript file with the RPS forms. This file must be downloaded for the hardcopy submission.
9. Get institutional endorsement signatures on the General Form
Print out the file returned by RPS and get the General Form signed. This is necessary for the PI's/Lead Co-I's institution. Don't forget to sign it yourself.
10. Get your Institutional Budget Form
This is the form that your institution will typically want to include. It also occasionally has information that is useful in the processing of the grant.
11. Duplicate and send us the proposal
Ten (10) copies of the proposal plus the two copies of the institutional budget form must reach us by 20 March 2009. There is a very specific ordering as to how the budget proposals are to be assembled. PLEASE do not allow your institution to place an extra cover page on top of ours. NOTE: At many institutions the grants administrators will do the duplication and mailing of the proposals. We strongly recommend that you examine the proposal for correctness before they do so. You might save us all a lot of trouble. In AO-3 one single institution messed up over thirty proposals.
Useful pages and sites:
If you have any questions concerning XMM-Newton send e-mail to xmmhelp@lists.nasa.gov