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NICER Proposals and Tools

GO Cycle 1 Proposal Selection Announcement

Posted: 1 March 2019

The NICER mission is pleased to announce that the proposal selection process for GO Cycle 1 is complete, and observations will begin March 4, 2019. Documents listing selected proposals and approved targets have been released. Target of Opportunity targets requested by more than one proposal have been prioritized according to feedback received from the review panels. If you feel a target has satisfied the trigger criteria, please contact the NICER science team via the NICER Target of Opportunity/Director's Discretionary Time Request form. Be sure to include your accepted proposal number in the scientific justification.

U.S. principal investigators will be notified directly regarding invitations to submit Phase 2 budget proposals. The due date for Phase 2 budget proposals is currently TBD.


NICER Guest Observer Program

From 2018 onward NICER solicits Guest Observer proposals from the general scientific community via NASA's ROSES Research Opportunities. A Phase 1 (Science) proposal is submitted to NASA HEASARC's ARK/RPS system, containing detailed target selection forms and a concise science justification. Proposals may come from both US and non-US researchers. Phase 1 proposals are evaluated by peer review panels. Data from approved GO observations are public by default, however, GO proposal PIs can request a six month exclusive-use period, subject to peer review approval.

NASA also provides grant funding to support certain selected proposals. These funds are limited to proposals with PIs at US institutions. Selected proposals will receive a notification letter with more details and an invitation to submit a Phase 2 (Budget) proposal. Phase 2 proposals are submitted to NASA's NSPIRES system.

DateImportant NICER GO Cycle 1 Event
February 14, 2018NASA Research Announcement NICER Guest Observer - Cycle 1
September 21, 2018Cycle 1 Phase 1 Proposal Submissions Open
December 20, 2018Cycle 1 Phase 1 Proposals Due 4:30pm EST
February 10-13, 2019Cycle 1 Peer Review
March 1, 2019 - February 29, 2020Cycle 1 Observations*
* Observations after September 30, 2019, depending on results of Senior Review (in addition to Cycle 1 Peer Review).

NICER Cycle 1 Guide for Proposers

The Guide for Proposers summarizes guidelines from the NASA Research Announcement for NICER Guest Observers. It also describes in detail the elements and submission method for Phase 1 (Science) NICER Guest Observer proposals, as well as for Phase 2 (Budget) proposals.

NICER Cycle 1 Phase 1 (Science) Proposal Submission: The HEASARC ARK/RPS On-Line System

The HEASARC's Remote Proposal System (RPS) is an automated service providing Guest Observers from around the world an easy-to-use facility for submitting proposals in response to NASA Research Announcements.

NICER Proposal Tools

The NICER Proposal Tools provide documentation of the mission and applications/files that can be used for count rate and spectral simulations in order to help potential proposers demonstrate the feasibility of their proposed NICER observations. Approximate target visibility windows can be determined and NICER-specific observation properties are described.

NICER Science Team Investigations

By agreement with NASA's Astrophysics Explorers Program, the NICER Project is required to fulfill certain science objectives. The NICER Science Team Investigations support these science objectives. Proposed Guest Observer projects that duplicate existing projects of the NICER Science Team must justify that duplication, and may not be favorably reviewed.

NICER Cycle 1 Accepted Targets

Requests for Target of Opportunity targets requested by more than one proposal have been prioritized according to feedback received from the review panels. If you feel a target has satisfied the trigger criteria, please contact the NICER science team via the NICER Target of Opportunity/Director's Discretionary Time Request form. Be sure to include your accepted proposal number in the scientific justification.

NICER Cycle 1 Phase 2 (Budget) Proposals

This section of the Guide for Proposers focuses on submission eligibility for, elements of, and submission procedure for NICER Phase 2 (Budget) Proposals. Guidelines for submitting grant reports can be found here.

Additional opportunities to propose for NICER time

Joint programs through other observatories

Currently NICER has arrangements with the following observatory which makes available joint observing time:

Unsolicited NICER Target of Opportunity (ToO) or Director's Discretionary Time (DDT) Observations

The Cycle 1 GO program allows for ToO proposals to observe known sources (i.e., with known coordinates) but not to observe new sources. However, unsolicited ToO requests for transient and unpredictable phenomena, from both known and previously unknown sources, will continue to be possible through the NICER ToO request procedure.

NICER News: If you would like to receive email about NICER developments, please subscribe to the NICER-announce email list.
NICER Helpdesk: If you have any questions concerning NICER or the NICER GO program, please use the Feedback form.


Last Updated: March 1, 2019