Long-term Programs

Rules for Long Term Applications to ATAC

All applicants for observing time on the AAT are encouraged to consider requesting "Long Term" status from the Australian Time Assignment Committee (ATAC) for their proposals. Successful Long Term applications will be awarded time in the upcoming semester, and a provisional time allocation for future semesters. In addition, they will not be required to lodge a full proposal submission for semesters in which they have already been pre-allocated time. However, progress report(s) will be requested by ATAC as described below. A current Long Term proposal may be re-submitted in full, should the applicants require an additional allocation over and above that awarded previously. ATAC reserves the right to withdraw Long Term status if for any reason they are unsatisfied with the progress of the program.

Note that the concept of Long Term status does not apply solely to programs which may run over the course of several years; rather, the intention is to see that more programs get all the time they need in order to meet their scientific goals, and to improve the efficiency of the time allocation meetings by not having to review these same proposals every semester. For example, a program which requires observing time in only two consecutive semesters (e.g., to observe a complete sample of targets) may be awarded Long Term status. A proposal which fails to get Long Term status may still be re-submitted in the normal way each semester.

If you wish your proposal to be considered for Long Term status, please indicate this on the AAT proposal form (Question 3), and then detail your time requirements in this and future semesters in your technical justification.

Progress report requirements

All observing programs granted long-term status exceeding one year will be required to submit an annual progress report.  This includes both Large Programs and Long-term Programs extending over more than 2 semesters.

The first report will be required after a full semester of allocation has elapsed.  For example, a program granted long-term status over 3 semesters will be required to submit a progress report during the 2nd semester of their allocation, in advance of the 3rd semester.  The TAC may request additional progress reports in other semesters, at their discretion.

Progress reports will have a strict limit of 3 pages, including all figures and references.  They should discuss (where appropriate): survey progress compared to the proposal, scientific highlights, publication plans and data release plans. The TAC may ask individual projects for additional specific information.

Programs will receive written feedback from the TAC on their progress report.  This may include conditions to be imposed on future allocations, extra reporting requirements, or changes to the long-term allocation status. Unsatisfactory progress will trigger a further review which may result in the withdrawal of the allocation.

Progress reports should be provided at least a week in advance of the TAC meeting, by e-mail to the ATAC Secretariat.

Extended Science Case

The conditions under which an expanded (up to 5 pages) science case may be submitted in support of a Long Term proposal to ATAC are detailed in Section 12 of the most recent ATAC Policies and Procedures. In all such cases, the Principal Investigator must first seek permission from the ATAC Secretariat, before the proposal deadline.