BASIC INSTRUCTIONS

Utilizing ARK, the Astrophysics Research Knowledgebase, a service of NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, RPS provides a facility for filling out the Fermi Guest Investigator proposal forms, as part of the ROSES NRA. Electronic submission of the proposal forms is required. The anonymized scientific/technical justification must be submitted electronically, uploaded as a PDF file after the initial submission of the electronic proposal forms. A one-page "team expertise and resources" (not anonymized) PDF also will need to be uploaded (unless the submission is a progress report). Please note that each of these PDFs cannot exceed 10 MB in size and each have specified page limits.

Note: Fermi proposals must follow the Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals for dual-anonymous peer review. (Note that, for Fermi proposals, the page limit for the team expertise document is one page, i.e. further constrained compared to the "no more than three pages" from the general guidelines document.) Proposers should fill in all required information on the forms, as detailed below. All fields (except those fields that specifically request names or institutions) should not contain personally identifying information. If a field does, NASA will need to redact it from the information provided to reviewers. With especially egregious cases (too many violations to readily redact, for example), NASA reserves the right to return your proposal without review. Your abstract, the contents of all other RPS form fields (except those fields specifically for names or institutions), and your justification PDF should not include language that identifies the names of investigators or their institutions. Note that progress reports do not need to be anonymized.

In order to access the Fermi RPS web form, you must first create an ARK account and/or join the "Fermi Guest Investigator RPS (FERMI)" group.

If you already have an ARK account, login first and select "Join Group" from the menu next to "Fermi Guest Investigator RPS (FERMI)" and then click on the Submit Changes button.

If you do not already have an ARK account, enter your e-mail address in the input field provided and click on the checkbox next to "Fermi Guest Investigator RPS (FERMI)" and then click on the Join ARK button. Check your e-mail and follow the registration URL found therein. Fill out the ARK registration form and submit.

Next, proceed to the Fermi Guest Investigator RPS web form and fill out the form as directed below. Targets can be added at the end of the form or by clicking the Add Targets button at the top or bottom of the page. The Add Targets button can be used to add blank targets or to upload a plain text file containing a list of target names and/or positions. Please note that this latter method will only fill in the fields for the target name and pointing position; you will still need to enter other information (observation time, instrument parameters, constraints, etc.) for each target using the web interface. Alternatively, after adding some targets, you can use the Save button to download a plain text representation of the RPS form, which you can edit in your favorite text editor and then Reload into ARK. Note that the file format used by the Reload mechanism is the same as the format of the files generated by the Save button.

After you have filled out the form, click the Verify button to make sure you have entered the form information correctly. If the form does not validate, ARK/RPS will identify the reason(s) why it did not, which you will need to correct. Once the form verifies successfully, a Submit button will appear, allowing you to submit the proposal to RPS. Note that you must Verify successfully before the Submit button will be revealed and you must use the Submit to submit your proposal.

The PostScript, PDF, and LaTeX buttons can be used to generate formatted versions of the proposal forms. We recommend that PIs keep formatted copies of the forms for their personal records, but it is not a required part of the proposal submission process.

After clicking on the Submit button, go to your Recent Activity page. Summary information for the proposal that you just submitted should be listed here, indicating that you have successfully submitted your Fermi proposal forms to ARK/RPS. You may now upload your scientific/technical justification (anonymized) and your team expertise and resources (not anonymized) documents in PDF format. (The latter does not need to be uploaded if you are submitting a progress report.) From the Recent Activity page, click on the Files button next to the proposal you submitted, and then click on the Upload button and follow the instructions on that page. After you have successfully uploaded both of those files required for your proposal, you will have completed your RPS electronic submission.

Note: After submission and before the proposal deadline, you may still Modify or Discard your proposal using the appropriate buttons on the Recent Activity page. The Files button also enables you to Download, Discard, or Replace any file that you previously uploaded.

Additional information on how to use RPS and the answers to some frequently asked questions can be found on the RPS Quick Help page.

Questions specific to the Fermi Guest Investigator Program should be submitted to the Fermi Science Support Center Help Desk.

Short descriptions of the forms and fields are below. The fields are listed in the same order as found on the web page. The labels for the fields in the web form will link to the appropriate field description below.

FORM/FIELD-SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

Cover Page

This section contains fields for the proposal title, the type of proposal, the proposal abstract, and information about the Principal Investigator of the proposal, such as name, institution, address, telephone number, etc.

Proposal Title

The title of the proposal. Up to 120 characters are allowed. Required.

Abstract

800 characters maximum. Abstracts exceeding this limit will cause an error and must be shortened. Please do not use special characters or LaTeX markup in the abstract. In accordance with the Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals for dual-anonymous peer review, the abstract should not include language that identifies the names of investigators or their institutions. Required.

Subject Category

The type of object(s) to be studied in the proposal. Required. Specify one of the following categories:

     Active Galactic Nuclei
     Gamma-Ray Bursts
     Pulsars
     Stars
     Supernovae, Novae, SNRs and Diffuse Emissions
     Galaxies and Clusters
     Other

Proposal Type

The type of proposal. Required. One of the following categories must be selected:

     Regular
     Large
     Progress Report (only for continuing multi-year large programs)

Grants for 'Regular' proposals will average $40K-$60K per year, with a firm ceiling of $80K. For 'Large' proposals, the grants will average $100K-$150K per year, with a firm ceiling of $150K per year. The anticipated proportion of 'Large' project allocations is noted in the Fermi Amendment to the ROSES NRA. Note: If you select 'Progress Report' as your proposal type, then you should also specify 'Progress Report' for the Requested Project Duration and Observation Type fields.

Requested Project Duration

Specify the number of years you are requesting support for this project. For 'Regular' proposals (as specified in the Proposal Type field) only one year may be requested. For 'Large' projects, up to three years may be requested. For a 'Progress Report', either do not specify anything or select the 'Progress Report' option. Refer to the FSSC web site for detailed guidelines on multi-year proposals.

Observation Type

The intended type/purpose of your proposal's research program. The categories are:

     Correlated
     Fermi Data Analysis
     Theory
     Progress Report (only for continuing multi-year large programs)

'Correlated' proposals should include one or more target forms if joint program observations are being requested and are optional otherwise. 'Progress Report' proposals should not have any target forms.

Joint Proposal?

If you are planning to propose joint observation(s) as part of your Fermi Guest Observer proposal, it is strongly recommended that you first review the appropriate joint program's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). These documents are available from the Fermi SSC Proposals web page.

High-End Computing Joint Proposal

Specify whether or not the proposal is part of a joint proposal program for high-end computing resources by clicking the checkbox. Refer to the Fermi Amendment to the ROSES NRA for details.

INTEGRAL Joint Proposal

Specify whether or not the proposal is part of the joint proposal program with INTEGRAL by clicking the checkbox. If specified, please add at least one target form in order to specify the particulars of the INTEGRAL observation(s). Joint INTEGRAL proposals require a one-page appendix to the four-page (or six page in the case of Large projects) science justification text describing technical details of the desired INTEGRAL observations. Refer to ESA's INTEGRAL Science Operations Center for more information on INTEGRAL's instruments and observing capabilities.

NOIRLab Joint Proposal

Specify whether or not the proposal is part of the joint proposal program with the NOIRLab by clicking the checkbox. If specified, please add at least one target form in order to specify the particulars of the NOIRLab observation(s). Joint NOIRLab proposals require a one-page appendix to the four-page (or six page in the case of Large projects) science justification text that describes the technical details of the desired NOIRLab observations. Note that NOIRLab was formerly known as NOAO.

NRAO Joint Proposal

Specify whether or not the proposal is part of the joint proposal program with the NRAO by clicking the checkbox. If specified, please add at least one target form in order to specify the particulars of the NRAO observation(s). Note that the joint proposal program can award a maximum of 200 hours on NRAO facilities for any single proposal. Joint NRAO proposals require a one-page appendix to the four-page (or six pages in the case of Large projects) science justification text that describes the technical details of the desired NRAO observations.

TESS Joint Proposal

Specify whether or not the proposal is part of the joint proposal program with TESS by clicking the checkbox. If specified, please add at least one target form in order to specify the particulars of the TESS observation(s). Joint TESS proposals require a one-page appendix to the four-page (or six page in the case of Large projects) science justification text that describes the technical details of the desired TESS observations.

VERITAS Joint Proposal

Specify whether or not the proposal is part of the joint proposal program with VERITAS by clicking the checkbox. If specified, please add at least one target form in order to specify the particulars of the VERITAS observation(s). Joint VERITAS proposals require a one-page appendix to the four-page (or six page in the case of Large projects) science justification text that describes the technical details of the desired VERITAS observations.

Principal Investigator Title

Your title (Dr., Ms., Mr., Prof.). The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

First Name

Your first name. Up to 30 characters are allowed. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Middle Name or Initial

If you like, you may add your middle name or initial(s). Optional. Up to 30 characters are allowed. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Last Name

Your last name (surname). Up to 30 characters are allowed. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Department

The name of your department at your institution. Up to 60 characters are allowed. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Institution

Your institutional affiliation. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Address 1

The first line of your institution's address, e.g., the street name, any number within it, etc. Up to 60 characters. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Address 2

The second line of your institution's address, if needed. Up to 60 characters. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

City/Town

Your city or town. Up to 30 characters. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

State/Province

The name of the state/province/prefecture in which your institution is located. Up to 30 characters. Required. For states in the U.S., please use USPS-standard, two-letter abbreviations. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Zip/Postal Code

The postal code, ZIP code, or the equivalent of your institution. Up to 10 characters. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Country

The name of the country in which your institution is located. Required. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission. If your country is not listed, please contact the RPS Help Desk. Note: Proposals from PIs affiliated with People's Republic of China (PRC) organizations are not eligible. Bilateral collaborations between scientists affiliated with institutions from the USA and the PRC are not allowed by United States Federal law. Multilateral collaborations that involve scientists from institutions in the USA, the PRC, and other countries are allowed, however. Refer to the PRC FAQ for ROSES for details.

Telephone Number

Your telephone number, plus any extension. Please include the international prefix, if appropriate. Up to 24 characters allowed. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

Fax Number

Your fax number, if available. 24 characters allowed. The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

E-mail Address

Your e-mail address. Up to 60 characters. Required. If the e-mail receipt option is checked in your ARK user profile, an e-mail receipt will be sent to this address within 24 hours of the electronic submission of your proposal (usually much sooner). The value for this field comes from your ARK user profile. If it is incorrect, update your ARK user profile prior to proposal submission.

General Form

This section contains fields for details about your collaborators, if any, and additional contact information, as well as the anticipated budget and NASA FTE commitment. Up to 15 Co-Investigators can be specified here. If you have more than 15 Co-Investigators, additional Co-Investigators can be specified in the team expertise PDF that you will need to upload after successful submission of your proposal forms. The team expertise PDF should always include your complete list of Co-Investigators regardless of how many you have. Do not list any Co-Investigators in any comment fields of the forms, please.

Co-Investigator First Name

The first name of each Co-Investigator. Up to 20 characters.

Co-Investigator Last Name

The last name of each Co-Investigator. Up to 20 characters.

Co-Investigator Institution

The institution for each Co-Investigator. Up to 60 characters. Please refer to the List of Institutions Recognized by RPS and use the official name of the institution wherever possible. Note: If your Co-I's institution is not among those listed, please contact the RPS Help Desk and request that it be added to the list. Such requests are typically answered within 24 hours, excluding weekends and U.S. Federal holidays.

Co-Investigator Country

The country for each Co-Investigator. If a country is not listed, please contact us at the RPS Help Desk and request that it be added to the list. Note: Bilateral collaborations between scientists affiliated with institutions from the USA and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are not allowed by United States Federal law. Multilateral collaborations that involve scientists from institutions in the USA, the PRC, and other countries are allowed, however. Refer to the PRC FAQ for ROSES for details.

Co-Investigator E-mail Address

The e-mail address for each Co-Investigator. Up to 60 characters.

Additional Co-Investigators Listed in Team Expertise PDF?

If you have more than 15 Co-Investigators, mark this checkbox to indicate that additional Co-Investigators are specified in the team expertise PDF that you will need to upload after successful submission of your proposal forms. The team expertise PDF should always include your complete list of Co-Investigators regardless of how many you have.

Contact First Co-Investigator?

Flag indicating if the first Co-I listed is also a contact person in cases where the PI cannot be reached. The default is no.

Telephone Number of First Co-Investigator

If you specified that the first Co-I is a contact person, then specify the telephone number of the first Co-I. Up to 24 characters.

Receive Your Peer Review Evaluation by E-mail?

If you select "Yes", you will receive a copy of the peer-review evaluation report via e-mail. If you select "No", you will receive a printed copy via regular postal mail. NASA policy generally requires that sensitive materials be mailed rather than e-mailed; so by selecting "Yes" you are agreeing to a waiver of that requirement regarding your proposal evaluation.

NASA FTE Commitment

The number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) NASA civil servants (in units of years) that would be supported by this proposal, if approved. This may be a fraction or zero. This information is collected for NASA records only and does not affect acceptance of the proposal. Example: If two Co-Is are NASA civil servants and each will be supported for 10% of their time with this grant during this proposal cycle, then enter 0.2000 (0.10 + 0.10) for this field. Required.

Year 1/2/3 Maximum Budget Request

Enter the maximum budget amount you plan to request for each year of your project, assuming your stage I proposal is accepted. The value specified should be in thousands of U.S. dollars and rounded to the nearest integer. For example, you should enter 50 if you plan to submit a budget of no more than $50,000 for the specified year. Please note that the grants for 'Regular' proposals will average $40K-$60K per year, with a firm ceiling of $80K. For 'Large' proposals, the grants will average $100K-$150K per year, with a firm ceiling of $150K per year. The anticipated proportion of 'Large' project allocations is noted in the Fermi Amendment to the ROSES NRA. If you do not intend to submit a stage II (budget) proposal, please enter zeroes for any relevant Maximum Budget Request fields.

Target Form(s)

This section contains the details that need to be specified for each different target.

Target Name

The commonly accepted name for the object. Up to 20 characters. Please use standard names for known targets (e.g., NGC 2237 or Eta Car). Required.

Target Description

A description of the target. Up to 255 characters.

R.A.

The J2000 right ascension of the source. The value can be entered in either sexagesimal format (HH MM SS.SS — hours, minutes, seconds, separated by spaces) or decimal degrees format (DDD.DDDD). If you enter the value in sexagesimal format, it will be converted to decimal degrees format when you submit. Note: If you are proposing to observe a generic Target of Opportunity (e.g., new supernovae) whose position is unknown at the time of proposal submission, please specify "0.0" for both the R.A. and Dec. fields. Required.

Dec.

The J2000 declination of the source. The value can be entered in either sexagesimal format (±DD MM SS.S — an optional sign, either + or -, followed by the degrees, minutes, and seconds, separated by spaces) or decimal degrees format (±DD.DDDD). If you enter the value in sexagesimal format, it will be converted to decimal degrees format when you submit. If you do not specify the sign, it is assumed to be positive. Note: If you are proposing to observe a generic Target of Opportunity (e.g., new supernovae) whose position is unknown at the time of proposal submission, please specify "0.0" for both the R.A. and Dec. fields. Required.

Remarks

Any relevant comments you wish to make regarding the target or how it is to be observed. Up to 500 characters. Optional.

INTEGRAL Observation Parameter

If you are requesting an observation through the Fermi-INTEGRAL joint proposal program, you must fill in the amount of time requested for INTEGRAL observation in kiloseconds. Additional information, such as the justification for the amount of time requested, must be provided in the scientific justification.

INTEGRAL Time

Specify the total number of kiloseconds requested to observe this target by INTEGRAL. Values may be specified in 0.01-kiloseconds increments. Requested exposure times may not exceed 250.00 kiloseconds, which is the the total time allotment of the Fermi-INTEGRAL joint program. Leave this field blank if you are not applying to the Fermi-INTEGRAL joint program.

NRAO Observation Parameters

If you are requesting an observation at an NRAO facility through the Fermi-NRAO joint proposal program, you must request a positive number of hours at least one NRAO facility. Note that the joint proposal program can award a total (maximum) of 200 hours on NRAO facilities for any single proposal. The array, wavelength, or receiver should be specified through the pull-down menus, if possible. Additional information, such as the justification for the number of hours requested, must be provided in the scientific justification. These fields are only visible if the NRAO Joint Proposal checkbox is selected.

VLA Hours

Specify the total number of hours requested on the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. Required for Fermi-NRAO joint proposals requesting VLA time. Specify values in 0.1-hour increments up to a maximum of 200.0 hours. Leave this field blank if you are not requesting VLA time.

VLA Array

Optional (but encouraged) for Fermi-NRAO joint proposals requesting VLA time. If possible, indicate the VLA array from the following possible choices:

     VLA-A
     VLA-BnA
     VLA-B
     VLA-CnB
     VLA-C
     VLA-DnC
     VLA-D
     VLA-Any

VLA Wavelength

Optional (but encouraged) for Fermi-NRAO joint proposals requesting VLA time. If possible, indicate the VLA wavelength from the following possible choices:

VLBA Hours

Specify the total number of hours requested on the Very Large Baseline Array. Required for Fermi-NRAO joint proposals requesting VLBA time. Specify values in 0.1-hour increments up to a maximum of 200.0 hours. Leave this field blank if you are not requesting VLBA time.

VLBA Wavelength

Optional (but encouraged) for Fermi-NRAO joint proposals requesting VLBA time. If possible, indicate the VLBA wavelength from the following possible choices:

GBT Hours

Specify the total number of hours requested on the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. Required for Fermi-NRAO joint proposals requesting GBT time. Specify values in 0.1-hour increments up to a maximum of 200.0 hours. Leave this field blank if you are not requesting GBT time.

GBT Receiver

Optional (but encouraged) for Fermi-NRAO joint proposals requesting GBT time. Indicate the GBT receiver to be used from the following possible choices:

     290-920 MHz (PF1)
     910-1230 MHz (PF2)
     1.15-1.73 GHz (L)
     1.73-2.60 GHz (S)
     3.8-6.1 GHz (C)
     8.0-12.0 GHz (X)
     12.0-15.4 GHz (Ku)
     18.0-26.5 GHz (K)
     26.0-36.0 GHz (Ka)
     38.2-49.8 GHz (Q)

NOIRLab Observation Parameters

If you are requesting an optical observation through the Fermi-NOIRLab joint proposal program, you must fill in the number of hours requested for at least one telescope/instrument combination. Additional information, such as the justification for the number of hours requested, must be provided in the scientific justification. Note that NOIRLab was formerly known as NOAO.

NOIRLab Hours

Specify the total number of hours requested. Values may be specified in 0.01-hour increments up to a maximum of 999.99 hours, but note that most telescopes award time in half-night or full-night increments. If necessary, approximate a night as 8 hours. Leave this field blank if you are not applying to the Fermi-NOIRLab joint program.

NOIRLab Telescope/Instrument

Specify the telescope and the instrument on this telescope (if relevant) required for your observation. Leave this field blank if you are not applying to the Fermi-NOIRLab joint program.

TESS Observation Parameter

If you are requesting an observation with VERITAS through the Fermi-VERITAS joint proposal program, you must enter the number of hours requested for each requested target. Note that the joint proposal program can award a maximum of 120 hours of VERITAS observations subject to the caveats detailed in the joint-program MOU. Additional information, such as the justification for the number of hours requested, scheduling requirements or other details, must be provided in the required one-page technical supplement.

VERITAS Hours

Specify the total number of hours requested on VERITAS. Required for Fermi-VERITAS joint proposals. Specify values in 1-hour increments up to a maximum of 120 hours. Leave this field blank if you are not requesting VERITAS time.

TESS Observation Parameters

If you are requesting an observation with TESS through the Fermi-TESS joint proposal program, you must specify the number of 2-minute cadence target slots and the number of 20-second cadence target slots are needed for each requested target. Note that the joint proposal program can award a maximum of 1,000 2-minute cadence target slots and 50 20-second cadence target slots subject to the caveats detailed in the joint-program agreement. Additional information, such as the justification for whether 2-minute or 20-second cadence is needed to meet the goals of the proposal (and why the 10-minute cadence Full Frame Image data are not sufficient) and the suitability of using new TESS data products for the proposed investigation, must be provided in an additional one-page technical supplement.

TESS 2-Minute Slots

Specify the total number of TESS 2-minute cadence target slots requested for this target. Required for Fermi-TESS joint proposals. Specify a value between 0 and 1000, inclusive. Leave this field blank if you are not proposing for a joint Fermi-TESS investigation.

TESS 20-Second Slots

Specify the total number of TESS 20-second cadence target slots requested for this target. Required for Fermi-TESS joint proposals. Specify a value between 0 and 50, inclusive. Leave this field blank if you are not proposing for a joint Fermi-TESS investigation.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 14-Nov-2023 15:52:04 EDT

For assistance please contact the ARK Help Desk

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