National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA has now completed the scientific and technical evaluation (Stage 1) of proposals received in response to the NASA Research Announcement NRA 03-OSS-01, "Research Opportunities in Space Science - 2003", entitled "Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Guest Observer Program - Cycle 9.".

A list of accepted targets is now available on the Web.

US-based investigators are now invited to submit Stage 2 (budget) proposals for support of selected Cycle 9 proposals. The budget process is open to Guest Observers associated with US institutions (and who expect to remain so during the grant period), and may include (a) US PIs, and (b) US Co-Is on foreign-PI proposals, where the involvement of the US Co-I is significant, and critical to the success of that investigation.

Note that only one budget per accepted observing proposal will be allowed, i.e. US PIs must submit a budget including the required support for all of the eligible co-Is, and the US Co-Is on a foreign-PI proposal must designate a Lead Co-I and submit a budget as a group. It is permitted and encouraged that subgrants be utilized to fund Co-Is at separate institutions to avoid double overheads, thereby increasing the cost effectiveness of these grants.

To guide the proposer in formulating a realistic funding request, factors such as the scope, complexity, and relative ranking of the investigation should be taken into account, including any modifications (e.g. deletion of targets, reduction in observing time) to the original proposals recommended by the Stage 1 review panel. Additional factors that will be considered include the possible presence of other proposals for which a given PI or Co-I is requesting funding under this solicitation, and other sources of support relevant to this request.

A total of approximately $700K is available for the support of approximately 50 Cycle 9 Guest Investigations of 1 year duration each. For Stage 2, a review team comprised of a subset of the Stage 1 Panel will be convened by NASA to review the cost proposals against factor (4) of the evaluation criteria as specified in Section C.2 of the NASA Office of Space Science Guidebook for Proposers "Guidebook for Proposers". Based upon the results of the above reviews, the RXTE Program Scientist will recommend a set of proposals to the Director, OSS Astronomy and Physics Division, for final selection.

In preparing a Stage 2 submission, the proposer must follow the detailed guidelines provided.

The PI (or the lead Co-I of a foreign-PI proposal) is responsible for submitting a single package containing the budget request for a given proposal. Please submit the signed original and ten (10) hardcopies of the completed proposal package not later than 4:30pm EST on Tuesday 27 January 2004 to:

        Dr. Patricia T. Boyd
        RXTE Guest Observer Program
        Code 660.1
        Goddard Space Flight Center
        National Aeronautics and Space Administration
        Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001
        USA
        Tel: 301-286-2550
        FAX: 301-286-0708
        Email: xtehelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov

We expect to complete the Stage 2 Review by 2004 March, at which time you will be informed of the final recommended funding level for your proposal(s). As always, any questions about this process should be directed to the the RXTE Guest Observer Facility.

Further Information

• Detailed guidelines for preparation and submission of budget proposals
• Cycle 9 Observing Program
• Introduction to NASA Research Announcement NRA 03-OSS-01, "Research Opportunities in Space Science - 2003", entitled "Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Guest Observer Program - Cycle 9."
• Instructions for applying to RXTE Cycle 9 Stage 1 (now expired)
• Description of the RXTE Guest Observer Program (was: Appendix A)
• Information for proposers regarding proposal submission, evaluation, selection and implementation (was: Appendix C)
• Filling out RXTE Stage 1 proposal forms (was: Appendix D)
• Technical Appendix (was: Appendix F) - Information about the RXTE mission, instruments, and feasibility.