XMM-Newton Proposal & Planning Tools

ABC Guide for Budget Proposals

So, you have been explicitly notified that you are eligible to submit a budget proposal to obtain funding to analyze your XMM-Newton AO-25 US PI Category A/B/C-ranked observation(s). Below is a list of steps to go through, roughly in order.

Determine whether you are eligible to receive funding.

NASA funding for the analysis of XMM-Newton GO observations is limited to PIs who are employed by an Institution in the United States and who expect to remain so. If you are planning on leaving the US before the grant period will begin, please inform the GOF.

Only one budget proposal will be allowed for each accepted scientific proposal meeting this criteria. The PI (or Co-I designated by the PI) should submit the budget proposal.

PIs with joint US and foreign institution affiliations must declare the fraction of time to be spent at the US institution over the course of the budget year. In addition, NASA funds may not be used to travel between the two institutions. For example, NASA funds may not be used for travel to a European conference or collaboration where the PI uses other funds to travel to his/her European institution.

All known eligible PIs have been contacted by the GOF.

If your institution doesn't permit you to be a PI on a grant, for instance if you are a graduate student, then delegate the responsibility to a Co-I who can (your major professor, for instance). This person will then be the Budget PI. No letter of explanation or other notification is needed in the proposal document. The Budget PI must be at the same institution as the Science PI.

There are two ways to designate a Budget PI. Either the Budget PI can submit the proposal themselves, in which case they are automatically named the PI and can designate a Co-I as the Science PI in the Team Members section of the NSPIRES site, or the Science PI can submit it, listing the Budget PI as an institutional PI in the Team Members section, and making sure to use the same name in the Program Specific Data section for the Budget PI.

Only one budget proposal will be allowed for each accepted scientific proposal meeting the above criteria. The PI (or Co-I designated by the PI) should submit the budget proposal.

Determine whether you need to submit a budget now.

US PIs with XMM-Newton AO-25 proposals with A or B priority targets must propose at this time. No other budget proposals will be accepted. US PIs with C priority targets will be notified if they are eligible to submit a proposal, and may do so at that time.

Get your Fair-Share budget estimate.

Fair-share estimates are sent out to eligible PIs near the start of the budget proposal process. PIs with questions may contact the Technical Officer for more information.

If you do not have one, obtain an NSPIRES account.

Please take some time to become familiar with NSPIRES. It can be tricky if you have not used it before!

Determine what your budget request will be.

In cooperation with your co-Is and your institution's grants administrators you must come up with a budget which should have a reasonable relationship to the availability of funding as indicated by the fair-share estimate. Any funding in excess of the fair-share estimate will need to be extremely well justified.

There are some things that PIs should be aware of:

The funding in this program is intended for use in a single year.
While grant money may be used to fund Co-Is at institutions other than the PI's, the money cannot go directly from NASA to the Co-I's institution. It must be routed through the PI's institution. In other words, subawards or subgrants are not allowed.

Work budget numbers in NSPIRES along with your instutition's grants administrators.

Self-explanatory.

Enter your proposal information into the NSPIRES system.

PIs will be asked to provide a proposal summary in NSPIRES (which is your original science proposal abstract) and answer some standard questions. PIs are required to submit one year of an NSPIRES-based budget and add any US co-Is in addition to the PI. This information will be used to make the Cover Page section of the proposal by clicking on "Generate" after the other needed files have been uploaded.

Important: For budget purposes, we do not need to know who your non-US co-Is are, so do not enter these names into NSPIRES. Please ONLY enter your US co-Is as your team members.

Be aware that your US-based co-Is may have to acknowledge their co-I status and link their institutions into NSPIRES if they aren't already. PIs may need to thus instruct their co-Is to register in NSPIRES.

Prepare the Budget Justification (1-2 pages).

In the text editor of your choice, write a short Budget Justification narrative, including enough detail to justify the requested expenditures. A good budget narrative describes in sufficient detail how the proposed funds will be used to achieve the goals outlined in the proposal, and describes how the costs were obtained. All costs must have a basis of estimate. Note the requirement for a complete description of labor, travel, home/home office internet upgrade, virtual meeting/collaboration hardware and applications, and equipment requests; these are elaborated below. Please note that reviewers will consider only those pages in each proposal section that do not exceed the page limits specified. When it is done, print it to a PDF file. Proposals do not have a Budget Justification will be returned.

PIs with both US and foreign affiliations: 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.

Labor: A complete description of the labor to be done, and by whom, is needed, even if the person has not yet been identified. For example: "Dr. X will oversee the project, making sure that the science goals are met in a timely fashion and all activities and expenditures comport with policies and regulations laid out by the federal government, the University, and the terms of the award itself. Dr. X will be assisted by Dr. Y, who will advise a graduate student who has not yet been identified. The student will be responsible for data reduction, analysis, and writing publications. It is expected that two publications will result from this project." Substitute the appropriate names for X and Y.

Travel: A complete description of each travel request is needed, even if subject to change (e.g., 2027 Winter AAS meeting in Salt Lake City, Airfare $XXX, Hotel $XXX, Registration $XXX, Ground Transportation $XXX, Incidentals $XXX, where the XXX's are replaced with appropriate numbers). State where those numbers came from, e.g., GSA per diem rates or last year's AAS meeting registration fee. Describe the purpose of the proposed travel in relation to the grant. In general, only one trip per team member to a professional society meeting will be supported. Travel requests in excess of $5,000 must be very well justified and a proposal may be returned for correction if the travel is deemed excessive.

Internet access upgrades and hardware: For home/home office internet access upgrades and hardware, describe and explain the need for them and list the specific cost. Also provide where the price information came from, e.g., a URL and the date of the price check. For example, "High-end web camera for video conferences with distant collaborators: $WWW. Internet upgrade from basic plan ($XX/month) to highest residential tier ($YYY/month) for N months to facilitate the video conferences: $ZZZ. Based on prices posted on [enter the relevant URL for the web camera] and [enter the relevant URL for the internet upgrade] as of [enter the date of writing]". Substitute the appropriate numbers for N, WWW, XX, YYY, and ZZZ.

Virtual Collaboration and Meeting Applications: For virtual collaboration and meeting applications, such as Overleaf, Slack, and Zoom, list the specific cost and where it came from. As the cost of some of these applications depends on the number of people using them, be sure to include the number of collaborators expected to use it. For example, "Overleaf subscription for 1 year, for a collaboration of NN people: $XXX, based on prices at [enter the relevant Overleaf URL] as of [enter the date of writing]" or "Slack Pro channel for 1 year, for a collaboration of M people: $YYY, based on prices at [enter the relevant Slack URL] as of [enter the date of writing]". Substitute the appropriate numbers for NN, M, XXX and YYY. PIs may request more than one virtual collaboration/meeting application, but they should be justified.

Computer hardware and equipment: For computer equipment and associated supplies costing less than $5,000, provide only the basis of estimate; no description or explanation is needed. For equipment and supplies that cost $5,000 or more, describe them and explain the need for them, in addition to providing the basis of estimate.

Publication Charge: Please give the basis of estimate for the cost of publication. For example, "X publications at Tier 1 in ApJ: $YYYY", substituting the appropriate numbers for X and YYYY.

Supplies: Provide general categories of needed supplies, the method of acquisition, and the estimated cost.

Budget Justifications that do not have a basis of estimate for any salary, travel, collaboration/meeting service, collaboration/meeting application, publication charge, or high-cost item (> $5,000) that is requested will be returned.

Budget Justifications must make logical sense and be consistent with information provided on the Cover Page and internal to itself. Budget Justifications that are not will be returned.

Prepare the ancillary files.

Generate and assemble the ancillary files. Proposals that are missing an ancillary file will be returned.

Science Justification (4-5 pages): Collect the original science section of your XMM proposal.
NASA Biosketch Form (as many pages as needed): Using NASA's biosketch form, prepare a document for the Budget PI that contains the required information. Use it EXACTLY -- do not change any of the text or formatting. Do not remove any text or sections. Do not delete any instructions. When it is done, print it to a PDF file.
Forms, information, and examples are available:
NASA Current and Pending (C&P) Support and In-Kind Contributions Form (as many pages as needed): Using the NASA's Current and Pending Support form (Word document), prepare a document for the Budget PI that contains the required information. Use the form EXACTLY -- do not change any of the text or formatting. Do not remove any text or sections. Do not delete any instructions. When it is done, print it to a PDF file.

Forms, information, and examples are available:

Upload the files to NSPIRES.

Upload the files to NSPIRES:

Upload either the Budget Justification or the original Science Justification as the Proposal Document.
If you are submitting a proposal for an A or B target (i.e., under the "XMM-Newton Cycle 25" solicitation), upload whichever you did not upload in Step 1 as an Appendix. Upload the NASA Biosketch and NASA C&P Support under their appropriate designators.
If you are submitting a proposal for a C target (i.e., under the "XMM-Newton C Targets for Fiscal Year 2026" solicitation), upload all remaining files as Appendices.

When the files are uploaded, click "Generate". This will merge the Cover Page with the uploaded documents. The merged file will be downloaded to your computer so you can verify it is correct.

Finish the required steps in NSPIRES to link your proposal to your organization, and submit.

Good Luck!

Useful pages for making your proposal:

Useful general reference pages:

The XMM-Newton Users Handbook at: GOF-HTML or GOF-PDF SOC-HTML, SOC-PDF
The NASA Office of Space Science "Guidebook for Proposers" -- The main NASA documentation for proposals

If you have any questions concerning XMM-Newton send e-mail to xmmhelp@lists.nasa.gov