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Funding proposals will be accepted from principal investigators or co-investigators who are employed at U.S. institutions.
Investigators employed by NRAO are ineligible to receive funding; their participation in an observing program does not
affect the eligibility of other investigators in that program. The support program is intended to assist students who are
enrolled at U.S. universities and colleges; the status as a student of an intended recipient will be confirmed by the
investigator(s).
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Preliminary Funding Proposals must accompany observing proposals. An observing proposal is a proposal to use the Green
Bank Telescope (GBT), the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), or the Very Large Array (VLA) for some scientific investigation.
Each observing proposal is limited to one Preliminary Funding Proposal, from the investigator designated by the observing
team. The deadlines for submitting a proposal are February 1, June 1, and October 1 each year.
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Funding will be awarded by the Student Observing Support Committee. Factors considered in making awards through this program
include, but are not limited to, the referee ratings of the related observing proposal; a work assignment that clearly
outlines the student's contributions to the research; the importance of the work to the student's professional
development (e.g., whether or not the research will be included in the student's dissertation); and a responsible
request for funds, given the number of hours allocated to the observing proposal and the availability of other funds
to support the research. The referees are predominantly external scientists who evaluate the scientific merit of
the observing proposals. Awards will be subject to the availability of funds from the NSF. A funding cap of $45,000
in active awards will be imposed per investigator.
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If funds are requested for a student's stipend or travel to domestic meetings, the requesting investigator must also be
the student's advisor. If the work assignment also involves data from related observing proposals, it should cite
those proposals by their codes, if known, or titles. If the work is building upon results from a prior award to the
advisor under this program, the new observing proposal should demonstrate progress made under that prior
award. Investigators who have requested funding will receive notification from the Student Observing Support Coordinator
concerning the status of their funding requests. Notifications regarding funding requests will be issued shortly
following notifications regarding time requests. The Student Observing Support Coordinator, normally a scientist on the NRAO
staff, will be given assistance on business issues by the the Student Observing Support Administrator from the Observatory
Business Services.
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If funding is awarded, a Final Funding Proposal, with a detailed budget and budget narrative, must be received by the
Student Observing Support Coordinator within thirty days of being notified of the award. The detailed budget should
be an elaboration of the Preliminary Funding Proposal. The data archived during observations are subject to the standard
NRAO proprietary policy, namely: data are reserved for the exclusive use of the observing team for a period of twelve
months, after which the data are available to any astronomer.
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Funding will normally be awarded for a period of one year. The Student Observing Support Administrator will coordinate award
activation, disbursement, and deactivation with the awardee institution. An award may be activated any time after the
observations have been scheduled, provided a Final Funding Proposal has been received. One request for an advance of a
portion of the funding may be made to assist with the preparation of the observations in the period between award
notification and observation start. One request for a six month, no cost extension may also be made. Although this
initial program is oriented toward a one year program, a request for support of a two year program of observations for
a dissertation may be considered. Such a request should be accompanied by a more detailed description of the observing
program, and should include the dissertation plan. A report summarizing the progress achieved during the first year
must be submitted for evaluation by the Student Observing Support Coordinator before the funding for the second year will be
released.
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The funding cap for student stipends (undergraduate and/or graduate) is $32,000 with an additional amount of up to
$3,000 for miscellaneous expenses (computer hardware for student use and/or student travel to domestic meetings to
present acquired data). Administrative costs may be attached to the student stipends to offset the costs of
administering the award by the investigator's institution. If the funding cap of $32,000 is being requested for
student stipends, no more than $3,000 of that cap may be used for administrative costs. If less than the funding cap
is being requested for student stipends, the administrative costs may be no more than 10 percent of the stipends.
Tuition costs are not allowed. Fringe benefits are allowed. Domestic meeting locations include those within the U.S.
and its territories, within Canada, or within Mexico. Tickets for air travel must be purchased from U.S. flag carriers,
defined as those holding certificates under section 401 of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (49 U.S.C.
1371).
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Those receiving funding through the NRAO Student Observing Support Program remain eligible for the standard NRAO user support
programs, including travel to the NRAO for observing and data reduction, and page charges. The standard publication
acknowledgment must be augmented by the sentence "Support for this work was provided by the NSF through award GSSP
id from the NRAO". The Student Observing Support Coordinator will assign an identification code to replace
"id".
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A close out report to the Student Observing Support Administrator must be submitted within six months of expiration of the
award. The investigator will provide a letter of appointment for the student(s) supported by the award, a statement of
expenditure of time by the student(s), and documentation of all expenditures for travel and equipment, including
original receipts. A refund check for any balance of advanced unexpended funds must accompany the close out
report.
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Funding will be awarded under the general terms and conditions contained in the document "General Provisions". That
document includes terms and conditions 1 through 9 above, plus additional provisions based on the Cooperative Agreement
for the operation of the NRAO between the NSF and AUI and which apply to the NRAO Student Observing Support Program.
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