Guide to the XRISM Cycle 1 Program for US- and Canadian-based Proposers



Important Update

The XRISM Resolve instrument's Gate Valve (X-ray aperture door) has not opened, thereby shifting Resolve's energy band from 0.3 - 12 keV to 1.7 - 12 keV and lowering the effective area. While the XRISM team will continue to assess different approaches to opening the Gate Valve, the Cycle-1 program will be carried out with the closed Gate Valve configuration. Proposals must justify the science case given the closed Gate Valve and shift in energy band. Note that the Xtend instrument is not affected by this. [Updated on Jan 11, 2024]

Because the Resolve aperture door ("gate valve") has not yet opened, the exposure time limit for Cycle 1 GO proposals has been increased to 300 ks per pointing. However, the overall limit per proposal is still 600 ks. This supersedes the instructions given in NASA Research Announcement D.18 XRISM General Observer - Cycle 1. [Updated on Feb 14, 2024]

1. Overview

This NASA Research Announcement (NRA) solicits General Observer (GO) proposals for XRISM from U.S. and Canadian-based PIs. For proposers from neither U.S. nor Canada, please refer to the ESA solicitation or the JAXA solicitation.

For the NASA solicitation, approximately 5.2 Ms of time will be available in the observing period running approximately from August 1, 2024 - July 31, 2025. It is anticipated that no more than $6.5M in funding will be made available to support the analysis of targets accepted at priority A, B or C (if observed) as well as Supporting Atomic Physics (SAP) investigations. Priority C targets will be observed on a "best-effort" basis. In cases where the same target is selected in more than one national program (JAXA, NASA, ESA), the feasibility of merging the two (or three) investigations will be explored at the International Merging meeting. XRISM data from approved GO program observations (including peer review approved TOO observations) have a nominal one-year exclusive-use period commencing at the time of receipt of the processed data by the observer. Only PIs affiliated with, and located at, a U.S. institution will be eligible for funding for accepted XRISM proposals through NASA.

2. Deadline

Proposals are due no later than April 4, (Thursday), 2024.

There are two types of proposals with different submission procedures:

  • Type-1 proposals should be submitted by 4:30 pm (EDT) via NASA HEASARC ARK/RPS.
  • Type-2 proposals should be submitted by 11:59 pm (EDT) via NASA NSPIRES by an Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) of the proposing organization.

For the ESA or JAXA solicitation, please refer to the proposal deadline and submission methods at the ESA site or the JAXA site.

3. Dual-Anonymous Review Proposals

Type-1 Phase-1 and Type-2 proposal review will be done in a dual-anonymous fashion.

Dual-anonymous peer review (DAPR) means that not only will the proposers not know who their reviewers are, but the reviewers will not know who the proposers are, at least not until after they have evaluated the scientific merit of the proposal. This implementation of DAPR will be based on that employed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The "Expertise and Resources Not Anonymized" document is distributed to the panel for a subset of proposals. This is to allow the reviewers to assess the team capabilities required to execute a given proposed science investigation. This assessment will not affect the science grade and will be used by the Selection Official to help determine whether there would be any risks in funding the proposal.

Key Points
  • Proposals should eliminate language that identifies the proposers or institution, as discussed in the Type-1 Phase-1 Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals and Type-2 SAP DAPR instructions.
  • PIs are required to upload an "Expertise and Resources Not Anonymized" PDF through ARK or NSPIRES as a separate document when submitting the anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management section.
  • Proposals that do not follow these dual-anonymous guidelines may be returned without review.
Additional information may also be found on the web at: https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/dual-anonymous-peer-review.

4. Proposal Types, Elements and Submission Method

Additional details concerning Cycle 1 are given in the XRISM NRA. There will be two types of proposals, (1) investigations requesting observations of celestial targets using one or both of the XRISM scientific instruments ("Type-1" or "Observing"); and, (2) theoretical and/or experimental investigations of atomic physics processes critical to enabling the fullest exploitation of the high-quality spectral data expected to be obtained with the Resolve instrument ("Type-2" or "SAP", US proposers only).

Type-1 (Observing) Proposals

Type-1 proposals will undergo a two-stage proposal process. Phase-1 is for observing proposals. Phase-2 is for budget proposals for successful Phase-1 proposers who were awarded Priority A or B ratings by the International Merging meeting.

Proposal submission is done via the HEASARC ARK/RPS on-line system. Hard-copy submission is not required. The following elements are required:

Type-2 (SAP) Proposals

The laboratory/theoretical investigation portion of the XRISM GO program, SAP will utilize a single stage proposal process. SAP proposals may request support for a period of up to three years in duration. Only US-based PIs are eligible.

Proposal submission is done via the NASA NSPIRES on-line system. Hard-copy submission is not required. The following elements are required:

The following should not be submitted as part of the Phase-1 proposal:

5. Selected Key Details of the Proposal Form

Type-1 Phase-1 (Observing) - ARK/RPS

New XRISM PIs must first create an ARK account and/or join the XRISM RPS group. Having done so, the XRISM RPS form can be accessed via ARK/RPS.

We provide below selected key details for XRISM Cycle 1. For further details, consult the ARK/RPS help file.

Cover Page
General Form
Target Form

After completing all fields for a proposal in ARK/RPS, use the Verify button to confirm that all required entries exist and conform to the expected format. Forms that pass verification can then be submitted. ARK/RPS allows PIs to continue to modify submitted proposals until the deadline, so there is no penalty for submitting the proposal form early.

The LaTeX, PostScript, and PDF buttons of ARK/RPS can be used to generate formatted versions of the proposal forms. Although it is often useful for the PIs to keep formatted copies of the forms for the record, it is not a required part of the proposal submission process.

Type-2 (SAP) - NSPIRES

New NSPIRES users (including PIs and Co-Is) must first create an NSPIRES account. Please refer to the NSPRIES help page for how to link to proposers' institutions, add Team Members, and enter budget information, etc.

6. Anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management Section

Format
Content

7. Expertise and Resources - Not Anonymized Document

PIs are required to upload an up to three-page "Expertise and Resources - Not Anonymized" document PDF through ARK as a separate upload when submitting the anonymized Scientific/Technical/Management section for Type-1 Phase-1 proposals. The LaTeX template or the Word template is available. This document provides a list of all team members, their institutional affiliations, roles, expertise, and contributions to the work. The document should also discuss any specific resources that are key to completing the proposed work. For Type-2, please refer to the list of required elements described in the proposal types, elements, and submission section or the NRA.

This document will be distributed to the review panel after all proposals have been reviewed and rated, only for programs which are in the selectable range. This is to allow the reviewers to assess the team capabilities required to execute a given proposed science investigation. If there are clear, compelling deficiencies in the expertise required to see through the goals of the proposal, the panel may decide to flag the submission accordingly, and provide a detailed justification in its comments to NASA. This review may not be used to flag "up" proposals for having strong team qualifications, nor may it be used to re-evaluate or upgrade proposals.

8. Budget Proposals for Observing Programs: Type-1 Phase-2 Proposals

US PIs whose Type-1 Phase-1 (observing) proposals are assigned a Priority A, B or C rating by the International Merging meeting will be invited to submit a Phase-2 (cost) proposal.

The Phase-2 proposal deadline is Sept.30th, 2024. Phase 2 proposals are submitted through NASA's NSPIRES system. As with all NASA ROSES proposals, final institutional submission is required. Please leave enough time for your institutional process. If your institution requires a NASA grant solicitation number, it is NNH23ZDA001N-XGO.

Subject to acceptance of the associated Phase 2 cost submission, proposals for standard-mode observations (excluding proposals involving Target of Opportunity ToO or time-constrained TC observations) assigned a Priority A or B rating will be eligible for funding immediately. US PIs of A or B proposals with ToO or TC observations or US PIs of Priority C proposals are also invited to submit a budget proposal by the Sept. 30th, 2024, deadline. However, the PIs of these programs will not receive funding until a target from their program is observed.

US Co-Is on proposals with non-US PIs are not eligible for funding.

To submit a Stage 2 proposal, follow these basic steps:

  1. Log on to NSPIRES. If you do not have an NSPIRES account, you will need to create one and affiliate with your institution.
  2. On your NSPIRES home page, click on "Proposals/NOIs."
  3. Click the "▸Create Proposal" button.
  4. Select "Solicitation." Even though your proposal has already been selected via phase 1, do not select "Prior-phase Proposal."
  5. Select "XRISM General Observer - Cycle 1" NNH23ZDA001N-XGO)
  6. Enter proposal information and your institutional affiliation.
  7. When proposal elements are complete, use the "Release to Org" button to release the proposal to your institutional proposal office.
  8. Your institutional proposal office must then perform the final proposal submission.
A Phase-2 cost proposal consists of:
  1. Cover page (via NSPIRES forms)
  2. The abstract (via NSPIRES forms)
  3. The budget justification (12pt minimum font with reasonable margins), not to exceed two pages, including: a) a breakdown of the work assignments for all funded investigators, b) any major purchases including workstations, c) proposed scientific travel, d) publication costs, and e) any cost sharing applied to this project
  4. Confirmation of commitment (via NSPIRES forms) from any unfunded but essential personnel and from any necessary observing facilities on which time is not granted through the NuSTAR proposal review process
  5. A listing of any current and pending support
  6. A budget prepared according to the guidelines of the PI or Co-I institution, detailing the requested itemized expenditures
  7. All required government certifications
  8. A 1-2 page CV for each PI or Co-I requesting support
Please note that only one institution (e.g., PI institution only) award is allowed for XRISM Cycle 1 Phase 2 proposals. If Co-Is requesting support, please do budget this as a sub-award. The nominal period of performance is one year and the PI may select a start date between October 1, 2024 and April 1, 2025. Grants for proposals with "regular" A and B targets will be processed after the cost proposals are reviewed. Since ToO and time-constrained target observation grants will be issued only after the observation(s) take place in those cases the PI may want to use a later start date for planning purposes. Note that in either case the relevant start date for year of effort will be when the grant is issued by NSSC. If the grant needs to be extended beyond one year, please submit the No-Cost Extension request at least three months in advance of the end date of the period of performance.


Any questions regarding the XRISM GO program can be submitted to our XRISM helpdesk. You can access our helpdesk by using HEASARC's Feedback form , or click the "HELP" icon to the left.