1. Overview

This NASA Research Announcement (NRA) solicits General Observer proposals for NuSTAR. Approximately 8.5 Ms of time will be available in the observing period June 1, 2021 - May 31, 2022. It is anticipated that approximately $3.75M in funding will be made available to support the analysis of targets accepted at priority L, A, B or C. Priority C targets will be observed on a "best-effort" basis. Target proposals will be considered from both US and foreign PIs. Data from approved GO observations, with the exception of Target of Opportunity (ToO) observations, have a nominal one-year exclusive-use period commencing at the time of receipt of the processed data by the observer. Data from peer review approved ToO observations have a six-month exclusive-use period. Only PIs affiliated with, and located at, a US institution will be eligible for funding for accepted NuSTAR proposals through NASA. As part of the NuSTAR Cycle 7 program, up to 1.5 Ms of XMM observing time, up to 300 ks of Swift observing time, and up to 250 ks of NICER observing time will be made available for coordinated observations with NuSTAR.

2. Deadline

Proposals are due no later than January 29, 2021 4:30pm (EST).

Note that the last day to request assistance for pointings with potential stray light to NuSTAR SOC is January 27th, 2021.

3. What's New in Cycle 7

• NuSTAR's timing accuracy (after barycenter correction) has been improved to 65 μs (1 σ).

• The 1 Ms exposure limit on total bright source observing time has been removed.
• The limit on total ToO observing time has been increased to 1 Ms.
• Joint programs with NICER can be for Cycle 7 only.

Changes to Anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management Section Format

• Phase-1 proposals should have a single-column format.
• References should be in the [1], [2] format.

Reminder: Dual-Anonymous Review Proposals

Dual-anonymous peer review (DAPR) means that not only will the proposers not know who their reviewers are, but the reviewers will not know who the proposers are, at least not until after they have evaluated the scientific merit of the proposal. This implementation of DAPR will be based on that employed by STScI in the evaluation of Hubble Space Telescope observing proposals in recent cycles, in that the names of team members will ultimately be revealed to the peer review panel after all of the proposals have been reviewed for scientific merit. At that time the peer reviewers will have the opportunity to comment on the qualifications and capabilities of the team. The selection official will take into consideration the assessment of the team's qualifications when making the selection.

The primary motivation for reviewing proposals in a dual-anonymous fashion is to minimize unconscious bias in the review process. PIs should consult the Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals document in the "Other Documents" section of the NuSTAR solicitation on NSPIRES for instructions on writing proposals appropriate for a dual-anonymous reviews.

• Proposals should eliminate language that identifies the proposers or institution, as discussed in the Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals.
• PIs are required to upload a one-page "Team Expertise" PDF through ARK as a separate upload when submitting the anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management section. (Note that, for NuSTAR proposals, the page limit for the team expertise document is one page, i.e. further constrained compared to "no more than three pages" from the general guidelines document.)
• Proposals that do not follow these dual-anonymous guidelines may be returned without review.

4. Proposal Elements and Submission Method

Additional details concerning Cycle 7 are given in the NuSTAR NRA. There will be a two-phase proposal process. Phase one is for observing proposals. Phase two is for budget proposals for successful phase one proposers who were awarded priority L, A or B targets. Only observing proposals will be accepted at this time.

Proposal submission is done via the HEASARC ARK/RPS on-line system. Hard-copy submission is not required. The following elements are required:

The following should not be submitted:

5. Some Key Details of the Proposal Form

New NuSTAR PIs must first create an ARK account and/or join the NuSTAR RPS group. Having done so, the NuSTAR RPS form can be accessed via ARK/RPS.

We provide below some key details for NuSTAR Cycle 7. For further details, consult the ARK/RPS help file.

Cover Page

• Institutional endorsement is not required by NASA in NuSTAR phase 1 proposals. Use the endorsement-related entries only if they are required or desired by the PI's institution.
• A total of up to 2 Ms of NuSTAR Cycle 7 observing time will be made available for the Large Program (LP) category. The minimum total exposure time for LP proposals is 500 ks.
• In addition to investigations utilizing NuSTAR observations only, proposals involving coordinated observations with the XMM-Newton observatory, NICER observatory, and/or Swift observatory can also be proposed during Cycle 7. Proposals for joint NuSTAR-XMM, NuSTAR-NICER or NuSTAR-Swift observations should be indicated by clicking the Joint proposal section of the ARK/RPS form, and inputting the requested XMM, NICER, and/or Swift exposure time in each target form. Proposers may submit the same proposal to XMM AO-20 and NuSTAR Cycle 7. However, the XMM-Newton AO-20 approved program will be taken into account during the NuSTAR Phase 1 review and duplicate observations of the same targets by NuSTAR will typically not be awarded. Similarly, Proposers may submit the same proposal to Swift AO-17 and NuSTAR Cycle 7 as well as NICER AO-3 and NuSTAR Cycle 7. However, the Swift AO-17 and NICERAO-3 approved program will be taken into account during the NuSTAR Phase 1 review and duplicate observations of the same targets by NuSTAR will typically not be awarded. All joint time proposals need to include a NuSTAR component.
• Joint proposals for NuSTAR observations with Chandra or Integral cannot be submitted in response to this AO. However, NuSTAR does have separate agreements with Chandra and Integral for coordinated observations. Please see the main Proposals and Tools page for more information.
• Target of Opportunity (ToO) proposals will be accepted in response to this AO.

General Form

• To facilitate checking for conflicts of interest during the peer review process, the co-I's institution must be chosen from the menu (thereby enforcing a uniform set of names). Please check the list of institutions and contact the RPS team as soon as possible if your co-I's institution is not on this list.
• Up to 15 co-investigators can be entered into the RPS form. If you have more than 15 co-investigators, the complete list of co-investigators should be in your Team Expertise PDF. The full list will be used by project personnel for conflict checking. Under the Dual Anonymous Proposal Review Procedure reviewers will not see any investigator names provided to ARK/RPS, unless they assess them after ranking the proposals (see the DAPR Guidelines). Please do not enter any investigator names in any ARK/RPS comment fields.
• Note that 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. Please refer to the PRC FAQ for ROSES for details.

Target Form

• Time Constraints: A target is considered as "Time Constrained" if any of the following sections of the target form are marked as 'Yes':
  • Position angle dependent
  • Moving Object
  • Monitoring Program
  • Phase Dependent
  • Time Constrained
  • Multi-year
  See the NuSTAR RPS help page for more information about these fields. In addition, observations coordinated with other ground- or space-based observatories are considered as time constrained.

  Time-constrained observations designated Category A, B or L will be given highest priority for scheduling during Cycle 7 (or Cycle 7 and 8 for multi-year programs). Time-constrained observations of Category C targets will be executed on a best-effort basis and therefore should be scientifically justified if the time constraint is not satisfied.

  The time constraints for multi-year program can occur in Cycle 7 and/or Cycle 8.

  Note that time-constrained Category A, B or L observations that are not part of a multi-year program and are not scheduled during Cycle 7 may be carried over to Cycle 8 where warranted by scientific or operational circumstances (e.g., in the case of coordinated observations with other space- or ground-based observatories). Category C time-constrained observations not scheduled during Cycle 7 will not be carried over to Cycle 8.

• Proposers should include a summary of details that are necessary for scheduling and observation planning (constraints, observing mode) in the Remarks box for each target.
• Sources with fluxes > 10^-11 ergs s^-1 cm^-2 within 5° of the target may cause increased non-uniform background gradients due to stray light. Users should check observations for potential stray light contributions using the tool that is available at the NuSTAR SOC web site. If a field is designated as having a "Potential stray light issue", proposers should submit a request for a feasibility analysis to nustar-help@srl.caltech.edu at least 2 business days prior to the proposal submission deadline.
• The minimum exposure for NuSTAR targets is 20 ks. If the proposer is also requesting XMM, NICER, and/or Swift time, the minimum exposure times for these telescopes are 5 ks, 1 ks, and 1ks, respectively.
• Estimated Count Rates: Expected total band (3-79 keV) count rate of the source in counts/second for both modules in a 50% PSF extraction with no deadtime.
• Target of Opportunity (ToOs): A total of up to 1 Ms of NuSTAR Cycle 7 observing time will be made available for proposals to observe ToOs. Single-trigger ToOs that are part of a Large Program are not held to a 1 Ms exposure time limit. Please note that regular ToOs do not carry over into Cycle 8.

  Proposals with a preferred response time less than 48 hours will be evaluated based on the assumption that the minimum response time is 48 hours. A more rapid response time than 48 hours will be accommodated on a best-effort basis.

  For ToO observations that are to be triggered from a class of objects: Complete one target form per trigger only, specifying "0.0" for both the R.A. and Dec. fields and providing a generic target name, and, if applicable, enter a list of potential target names in the ToO Remarks field. If the list of targets is too long to fit in the TOO Remarks field, include the list in the anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management section instead and put a note in the ToO Remarks to look there for the list.

  For ToO observations that are to be triggered from a list of specific named objects: Complete one target form per object and trigger criterion even if you ask for time for a subset only. For each ToO proposal the "Maximum Total Time Requested for ToOs" field must be provided. If you ask for time for a subset only, this number will be smaller than the automatically calculated summed exposure time for all target forms.

  Please note that it is the responsibility of the PI of an accepted ToO proposal to alert the NuSTAR SOC when the trigger conditions for their accepted ToO have been satisfied (via http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/page/too_policy). For more details see AO section 1.3.4.

After completing all fields for a proposal in ARK/RPS, use the Verify button to confirm that all required entries exist and conform to the expected format. Forms that pass verification can then be submitted. ARK/RPS allows PIs to continue to modify submitted proposals until the deadline, so there is no penalty for submitting the proposal form early.

The LaTeX, PostScript, and PDF buttons of ARK/RPS can be used to generate formatted versions of the proposal forms. Although it is often useful for the PIs to keep formatted copies of the forms for the record, it is not a required part of the proposal submission process.

6. Anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management Section

Format

• The anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management section for a standard and ToO program must not exceed 4 Letter size (8.5" x 11") pages. The anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management section for a large and/or joint program must not exceed 5 pages. Page limits include figures and references.
• The anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management section can be generated using the software of the PI's choice, as long as it is converted to PDF format before submission. However, the font size and margings should meet the proposal style format requirement described in the ROSES Summary of Solicitation. Specifically, the text body font size should be no smaller than 15 characters per inch. Figure captions and references may be smaller but must be legible. A 12 point font size is recommended. Please note that Phase-1 proposals should have a single-column format. References should be in the [1], [2] format.
• Proposals must not contain hyperlinks to additional material other than references to public information that do not identify the PI, Co-Is or their institutions; web pages with material specific to the proposal such as target lists or stray light assessments are not allowed.
• We suggest that proposers use the LaTeX template or the Word template for the anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management section. When using these templates, the user should double-check that the top, botton, right and left margins are at least 1 inch on US letter size paper (8.5" x 11").

Content

• Proposals should include a description of the scientific objectives; justify the choice of target(s); show that existing data (previous X-ray observations or at other wavelengths) are insufficient to achieve the objectives; justify the choice of NuSTAR over other existing observatories (preferably linked to some unique characteristic of NuSTAR); and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed observation and analysis.
• Proposals for targets already observed by NuSTAR are allowed, but must include a justification for an additional observation, such as a much longer exposure, different pointing position within an extended object, or different observing window for a variable object. Observed and/or approved NuSTAR targets can be found using the HEASARC/Browse numaster table or by using NuSTAR As-Flown Timeline.
• Conflicts with Legacy Survey Targets
  Observations of targets accepted through the Cycle 6 Call for Proposals will take precedence over legacy program observations of those targets. The status of legacy survey target observations can be found in HEASARC's numaster table by selecting "EGS", "ELS" or "GLS" for the obs_type keyword.
• A list of approved NuSTAR ToO programs in the NuSTAR, joint NuSTAR/XMM, joint NuSTAR/Chandra, joint NuSTAR/Swift, and joint NuSTAR/INTEGRAL GO programs can be found on the NuSTAR SOC page.

• The length of the observation should be justified based on the specific scientific objectives, preferably using simulations or scaled from prior NuSTAR observations of a similar source. However, the minimum NuSTAR observing time for a target is set at 20 ksec.

7. Expertise and Resources - Not Anonymized Document

8. Phase 2 (Budget) Proposals

US PIs whose Phase-1 proposals are assigned a Category A or B rating by the peer review panel or accepted as a Large Program, i.e., Category L, will be invited to submit a Phase-2 (cost) proposal.

The Phase 2 proposal deadline is June 30th, 2021. Phase 2 proposals are submitted through NASA's NSPIRES system. As with all NASA ROSES proposals, final institutional submission is required. Please leave enough time for your institutional process. If your institution requires a NASA grant solicitation number, it is NNH20ZDA001N-NUSTAR.

Subject to acceptance of the associated Phase 2 cost submission, proposals for standard-mode observations (excluding proposals involving Target of Opportunity ToO or time-constrained TC observations) assigned a Category A, B, or L rating will be eligible for funding immediately. US PIs of A, B, or L proposals with ToO or TC observations are also invited to submit a budget proposal by the June 30th, 2021, deadline. However, the PIs of these programs will not receive funding until a target from their program is observed.

Note that limited funding for the support of costs such as travel expenses associated with presentation of the results at a scientific conference, page charges, etc., will be held in reserve for US PIs of Category C proposals executed during Cycle 7. No budget proposal is due at this time from PIs of proposals with only Category C targets.

US Co-Is on proposals with non-US PIs are not eligible for funding.

To submit a Stage 2 proposal, follow these basic steps:

1. Log on to NSPIRES. If you do not have an NSPIRES account, you will need to create one and affiliate with your institution.
2. On your NSPIRES home page, click on "Proposals/NOIs."
3. Click the "▸Create Proposal" button.
4. Select "Solicitation." Even though your proposal has already been selected via phase 1, do not select "Prior-phase Proposal."
5. Select "NuSTAR Guest Observer - Cycle 7" (NNH20ZDA001N-NUSTAR )
6. Enter proposal information and your institutional affiliation.
7. When proposal elements are complete, use the "Release to Org" button to release the proposal to your institutional proposal office.
8. Your institutional proposal office must then perform the final proposal submission.

1. Cover page (via NSPIRES forms)
2. The abstract (via NSPIRES forms)
3. The budget justification (12pt minimum font with reasonable margins), not to exceed two pages, including: a) a breakdown of the work assignments for all funded investigators, b) any major purchases including workstations, c) proposed scientific travel, d) publication costs, and e) any cost sharing applied to this project
4. Confirmation of commitment (via NSPIRES forms) from any unfunded but essential personnel and from any necessary observing facilities on which time is not granted through the NuSTAR proposal review process
5. A listing of any current and pending support
6. A budget prepared according to the guidelines of the PI or Co-I institution, detailing the requested itemized expenditures
7. All required government certifications
8. A 1-2 page CV for each PI or Co-I requesting support