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VSOP PROPOSALS and HEREAFTER

The deadline for proposals for the 17 month Phase 1 period has now passed, and there seem to be two main questions on proposers' lips: did my proposal make it in time? and, how many proposals were received?

To answer the first question first, yes, both the electronic and printed forms of all proposals have been received. Every effort was made to send an e-mail on receipt of the electronic cover sheets and of the complete proposal, but it's clear from one or two enquiries we've received that several proposals did not receive one or other acknowledgement. Several proposers needed a gentle reminder to send in their electronic cover sheets, and one or two proposers ran into problems with their computer systems in getting their electronic versions to us. Overall, however, the system seemed to work very well.

And the number of proposals? It was..... but lets first provide a perspective to put this number in. No-one really knew how many proposals to expect. Asking for a `letter of intent' from proposers had been considered, but decided against. Most estimates were within an order of magnitude of 100 (which in astronomical terms would be considered quite accurate!). The final number received was..... but it should also be remembered that the number of proposals is, by itself, not a very good indicator of the demand on resources. The number of experiments per proposal (a question at the bottom of the second page of the cover sheets which a surprising number of proposers either left blank or answered incorrectly), and the preferred and acceptable number of orbits and number of telescopes per experiment must all be factored in to determine the real demand on resources. Also, as was to be expected, some sources were the subject of a number of proposals, and the Scientific Review Committee will have its work cut out in ranking such proposals, or deciding which experiments could perhaps be merged. So with those caveats in mind, we can finally inform you that the number of proposals received was.... (have we built up enough suspense yet?)..... exactly one hundred and fifty. Proposal handling and a detailed compilation of proposal statistics are now well underway.

Betty Siegman has brought her proposal handling experience from the Australia Telescope National Facility to Japan with her, and has been of great assistance to the VSOG with the proposal sorting, labelling, copying and summarising, and in preparing data from the cover sheets for use by the scheduling software.

The proposals will be sent next week to the Scientific Review Committee members and to those observatories participating in the VSOP mission that have expressed a desire to see them. Proposals will undergo a technical review at ISAS in January, and the SRC will meet at ISAS in February. Any recommendations made by the SRC will then be subject to the approval of the VSOP International Scientific Council (VISC) which will meet in March. Proposers will be contacted shortly after this meeting and informed of the outcome of the review process and the likelihood that their proposed experiments will be scheduled.

 
 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi