FAQs: GO 4

Please see the Cycle 4 Call for Proposals for more information regarding Cycle-4.

***General Cycle Information

Q:   When will the Cycle-4 Call for Proposals be issued?

A:   The Cycle-4 CP was issued on November 1, 2006, along with a slew of other updated documentation. Proposals are due February 16, 2007. For future dates for these sorts of events, consult the science schedule.

Q:   How much time do I have left to submit a proposal?

A:   See this page.

Q:   How does the selection process work?

A:   The evaluations of submitted proposals for a given cycle, conducted by Science Review Panels, are forwarded to a Time Allocation Committee (TAC), which is comprised of a Chair and the Panel Chairs. The TAC takes the results of the Science Review Panels and provide a consolidated list of recommendations to the SSC Director, who then makes the final selection of the cycle's research program. For more information about the proposal process, including the panel review of proposals, see the SPIE proceedings article on the Spitzer Space Telescope proposal process

Q:   How do I tell what objects have already been observed, with what instrument, and to what sensitivity?

A:   At any time, you can use Leopard to search by position for your favorite objects, and/or you can use Spot to download entire programs. (All the GO abstracts are online, if you wish to search by topic or PI.) You might also be interested in exactly what constitutes a duplicate observation, because the observation you are planning may not actually duplicate an existing observation.

There are also other tools to check and see if your target has already been observed -- there is a plain text ROC, and from within Spot, you can choose "Search programs" under the "file" menu to search for other AORs near your target.

Q:   I'm not a U.S. citizen, and I work in a different country. I don't normally have access to telescopes like Gemini. Can I still apply for a joint proposal using these other telescopes?

A:   There are no restrictions on who can apply for the time at the other observatories. You still can't get funding, however, unless you work at a US institution.

Q:   Can I apply for a joint proposal using 2 or more other observatories in addition to Spitzer?

A:   Yes, submit a single proposal and put as many observatories (up to four, HST, CXO, NOAO and/or NRAO) as you need into the appropriate window in Spot.

Q:   Can I propose for observing time and archival research at the same time, with the same proposal?

A:   If you want money for working on archival data, that must be submitted as an archive (AR) proposal. If you want telescope time for new observations, that must be submitted as an observing (GO) proposal. So alas, you will need to submit 2 proposals, one focussing on the new observations, the second focussing on the archival data.

***Formatting Questions

Q:   What is the preferred format for Spitzer Proposals?

A:   You MUST use the Proposal Templates, and you can choose from LaTeX and Word format.

Q:   How do I make a PDF file on [my platform]?

A:   Please see the document entitled "How to make PDF files" for instructions on how to generate a PDF file from several platforms, with or without the Adobe products.

Q:   Do I have to prepend the coversheet info to my proposal PDF file before I submit my 'scientific justification' PDF file?

A:   No, proposers should NOT prepend the coversheet information to their scientific justification file that they submit to the SSC. This feature is for users who may want to create an electronic copy of a 'complete Spitzer proposal' for their own use. The SSC will generate a coversheet from the latest, final coversheet information you submit with your proposal and prepend it to your final scientific justification PDF file for our use.

Q:   Do I have to append the AORs themselves into my proposal PDF file before I submit my 'scientific justification' PDF file?

A:   No, ALL of the AORs in your Spot AOR window are sent along with your proposal by the Spot proposal tool. Be sure that all of the AORs in your window are ones you want as part of your proposal (no test AORs, etc).

Q:   What is the maximum size for the PDF part of the proposal?

A:   The maximum size is 10 MB. To get your file size down, be sure that your figures are all black-and-white, and that the resolution is no more than 300 dpi.

Q:   So do I really, really, really HAVE to use the proposal templates??

A:   If we can't tell that you're using a different template, as long as you've got the same margins, fonts, and headings, you can use what you want. No fair using different fonts, margins, two columns, embedded figures, all of that stuff. Make it look just like you had used the template, and we won't notice.

Q:   I'm having trouble getting Latex to handle my figures properly. Can you help?

A:   Here are some things to try..

Put a \clearpage before the tables and figures section, and right after it.

If you're trying to put a second figure on the same page, then yes, it can be finicky about how many figures it will let you put on the same page. You may very well have to reduce them until latex is happy with their sizes. But, you can fake it out. Latex only knows about the bounding box on the ps file. I personally have had some problems when the plotting program that produces the ps creates excessive margins around the relevant bit -- e.g., the ps bounding box is 10cm wide, but the plot only takes up 6 or 8 of those 10 cm. So latex is trying to make space for the excess white space, which then looks funny on the compiled product. I've had some luck using a program like gimp to crop down the ps into a new version of the ps with less margin. Another solution I've used is to use gimp (or similar program) to put two figures next to each other and saving them as one file -- latex then just sees one figure, but your caption can now refer to "left" and "right" or "a" and "b" and have two figures occupy the vertical space previously occupied by just one.

Q:   How do I merge PDF files, like my coversheet to the rest of the file, or my cost plan to my science justification?

A:   If you have the full version of Acrobat, then under the "documents" menu, you can choose "insert pages" in order to merge the budget PDF file and the PDF from the main proposal template file into one big pdf file.

If you don't have the full version of Acrobat, then if you google "merging pdf files", you get more than 5 million hits, the first several of which look (a) free, and (b) like they might work on any unix platform.

***Funding Questions

Q:   Is it OK if each institution sends in their signed budget directly to SSC/JPL, or must my co-I institutions send their budgets to me so that I can send everything together in one package?

A:   Yes, each institution can send their endorsed cost plans directly to the SSC. Just be sure to clearly mark proposal to which it refers!

Q:   What is the mailing address for the hard copies of the institutionally endorsed cost plan?

A:   Please see the CP, section 10 for our address.

Q:   Is there a standard Spitzer cover page that should contain the endorsement for the Cost Plan/Budget Narrative for the three hardcopies that are sent to the SSC?

A:   No. Use whatever form/cover page your institution provides. Be sure to include the proposal number so we can match it up with the submitted proposal.

Q:   I am a grad student (or postdoc) at an institution that won't let me handle the money. Can I be the "Scientific PI" of the proposal, and have my advisor be the "Administrative PI"?

A:   We do accept proposals from graduate students as the PI. If your institution requires a faculty member to be the administrative PI and handle all the funding, we support that. The grad student (or postdoc) can be the PI and in the 'financial contact' section you should list who the administrative PI should be.

Q:   For GO proposals should the fractional extent to which each U.S.-based investigator will be involved in the total data analysis effort be the total of the U.S. effort or should it include accounting for my foreign collaborators efforts too?

A:   You can report it either way, just be clear what the percentages mean. Example: The US investigators will put in 50% of the total analysis effort and investigator 1 will do 50% of the US effort and investigators 2 and 3 will each do 25% of the US effort. Or you can report that investigator 1 will do 25% of the total effort and investigators 2 and 3 will each do 12.5% of the total effort.

Q:   I am preparing a GO proposal with myself as PI (U.S.-based institution) but the rest of my collaborators are foreign. Do I still enter 100% for the PI in the funding distribution section even though we expect some analysis effort will come from the collaborators (for which they must get their own funding)?

A:   Please enter the fraction effort that you expect from each of the investigators.

Q:   Can I fund a non-U.S.-based collaborator's visit to my U.S. institution with Spitzer (GO/AR/TR) funds?

A:   No NASA funds can flow to non-U.S.-based institutions and non-U.S.-based investigators. Such investigators must obtain their own funds. We have relaxed this rule for graduate students and post-docs who typically do not have their own funding source. But for scientists with permanent jobs at foreign institutions we cannot request travel funds.

An exception is if your U.S.-based institution will appoint the non-U.S.-based collaborator to a real but temporary position at your U.S.-based institution. In that case, the investigator now holds a U.S.-based affiliation and you can support their visit (flights, stipend, etc.) for the duration of the appointment.

Q:   Can I use my home institution's budget form instead of the template/online form?

A:   Yes. Be sure to remove the unused template budget form in the Word or Latex template and insert the new budget form in the template or proposal PDF file prior to submission of the proposal. The budget must be included in the proposal PDF file submitted via Spot.

Q:   I have two U.S.-based co-investigators on my Archive/Theory proposal that will request funding. How do I include the budget information for them?

A:   A budget must be submitted for EACH institution requesting funding. If you are also requesting funding this means that for this example three budgets (three Cost Plans and Budget Narratives) need to be included in the final proposal PDF submitted via Spot. Yes, this means at least three pages of budget forms (assuming each form fills just one page) and budget narratives.

Q:   Are archival proposals funded for one year? If not, how long is the possible funding period?

A:   AR/TR proposals can apply for one year's worth of funds. They have two years to spend it from the date of the contract issuance.

For comparison (and clarity), GOs get 3 years from the start of the Cycle to spend their money, regardless of when the funds are provided and when their data is taken.

Q:   An Archive/Theory proposal's Cost Plan can only be for one year. However, one has two years to spend the money. What does this mean?

A:   This provides you up to one year to start the planned one year's research program. For example, if as part of your research program you need to hire a post-doc for a year, this gives you time to perform the job search and get them in place before starting to use the funds.

Q:   Is support for ground based observations needed to interpret Spitzer data an allowable cost for Spitzer proposals?

A:   Yes, for Archival or General Observer proposals, modest support for ground-based observations is allowed. One should not exceed 10-20% of the total requested/provided funds for such a component.

Q:   I am preparing a General Observer proposal in which I have two co-investigators at different institutions and we expect we will get funding for a graduate student to work on the project for one semester. However, at this time we do not know which student/institution it will be, especially as we expect it could be several months before Spitzer data arrives. How do I specify the fractional amount of funding per institution in this case?

A:   In the proposal's funding distribution section indicate that the PI wants 100% and that you plan to fund a graduate student. If the proposal is successful then when we send you the funding award notice you can tell us that you want it split differently or sent to a co-investigator's institution instead.

Q:   I am preparing a Spitzer proposal for ~10 hours of Spitzer time. Could you give me a rough estimate of what the data analysis funding will be?

A:   The funding is determined by formula. A rough estimate would be to use last year's Cycle-3 average of $3000/hour.