NASA also provides grant funding to support certain selected
proposals. Selected proposals will receive a notification letter
with more details and an invitation to submit a Phase 2 (budget)
proposal. Phase 2 proposals are submitted to NASA's
NSPIRES system. In addition, there are
reporting requirements for proposals with budget awards.
3. Legacy Projects
The 2025 NASA Senior Review of Operating Astrophysics Missions required addition of legacy projects to IXPE's mission goals. The GO
proposal review panels will be instructed to prioritize proposals, particularly Large Programs, addressing these legacy projects.
- Deep observation of a rapidly rotating stellar-mass black hole in the soft state to search for EVPA rotation versus energy as
predicted in General Relativity
- Deep observation of the Crab pulsar to constrain the emission zone geometry thereby advancing our understanding of the pulse
emission mechanism
- Observation of a high accretion rate AGN to determine the Comptonizing medium geometry
- Additional studies of stellar-mass BH X-ray transients through all outburst phases to measure the evolution of the accretion
geometry
- Observation of a bright outburst of an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar suitable for constraining the magnetic field geometry
and improving constraints on the NS equation of state
- Observation of a magnetar in outburst to search for definitive signatures of vacuum birefringence
- Extended campaign on Her X-1 to measure the coupling between the crust superfluid and the crust itself
4. Grant information
PI's whose Phase-1 proposals were accepted and are eligible for funding
will be invited to submit a Phase-2 (cost) proposal through NSPIRES.
NASA and the federal government have specific requirements for the
reporting of results obtained by the recipients of grant funds.
The document Grant
and Cooperative Agreement Handbook details much of this information.
The information about No-Cost Extensions (NCE) on a NASA grant administered by the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) can be found
here (see Section 7.8).
To request a No-Cost Extension, please complete the electronic form. The first NCE is usually approved. Additional extensions will require significant justification.
IXPE GOs receiving NASA grants are required to file a Summary of Research Report detailing their supported activities along with necessary documentation within 90 days of the conclusion of the grant period. The report should list the objectives of the research and the achieved goals, including the dissemination of the results (i.e., papers published on the subject). The report should be submitted by the budget Principal Investigator, and should include the activities of any subgrant recipients. If the proposed research was not feasible, explain why not. Be sure to include the proposal number for the original science proposal. This is the five-digit number assigned when the proposal was submitted to RPS.
A template for this report can be found here. The "NASA proposal number" that is requested at the top right of the form is that of the original science proposal. This is the five-digit number assigned by NASA. The "Grant Number" (formerly a NAG number), requested just below the "NASA proposal number" on the form, can be found in the grant package.
The final report should be e-mailed to the Technical Officer for IXPE GO grants at ixpe_grants@bigbang.gsfc.nasa.gov. It should also be e-mailed to the Grant Officer of NASA's Shared Services Center (NSSC) at NSSC-CloseOut@mail.nasa.gov, in addition to any other reports requested by NSSC.
5. Additional opportunities to propose for IXPE time:
Transient astrophysical events do not always occur conveniently within a mission's proposal cycle schedule. Therefore, provision is made for proposals to be submitted at any time for transient Target-of-Opportunity phenomena. Such proposals must demonstrate why the proposed observation cannot be submitted through the normal peer-reviewed GO program cycle as well as provide a strong science justification. Each unanticipated ToO observation will be limited to a maximum exposure of 1.5 Ms.
Unanticipated ToO or Directors Discretionary Time (DDT) requests for events or sources that could not have been predicted or proposed for in GO programs, can be made using the IXPE ToO request form on the IXPE project website at MSFC. The decision on whether to perform an unsolicited ToO or DDT observation will be made by the IXPE Principal Investigator or an official designee. Proposals that were rejected by the peer review will not generally be considered favorably. Proposers should also note that ToO programs approved by the peer review take priority over unanticipated requests if the object in question fulfills the trigger criteria of a GO ToO. Approved DDT requests are unfunded and do not have an exclusive-use period.
Opportunties to propose for IXPE time are also available through the following joint programs. Maximum IXPE time that can be awarded is indicated in parenthesis:
IXPE Helpdesk
If you have any questions concerning IXPE or the IXPE GO program, please
use the Feedback form
Please be sure to select "IXPE" as the mailing list so that your
question can be routed to the correct helpdesk promptly.
