Policies for GPI Campaign Projects

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The GPI Campaign Projects represent a significant investment of resources by the Investigators on the projects, by the Gemini Observatory in executing the projects and by the Gemini partnership in granting the telescope time. The following are the expected policies that will govern GPI Campaign Projects.

1. Prospective GPI Campaign Projects should submit a Letter of Intent to Gemini by January 20, 2011. Letters should include this information:
   • Title of Project
   • Principal Investigator with full name of institution and contact information (phone and email)
   • Co-Investigators with full names of institutions
   • Broad scientific goals of the program
   • An estimate of the total amount of telescope time that will be requested and the number of semesters over which the project will run
   • A brief justification for the required time, not to exceed three pages

   The primary purpose of this Letter is to give the Gemini Science Committee an indication of the level of interest in GPI Campaign Time so they can make a recommendation to the Board on the total time available for GPI Campaign Proposals. The Letters of Intent will also inform the Gemini partners on the expected lien from GPI Campaign Projects on their usual allotment of Gemini time. Additional details about the Letters of Intent are described in a separate document.



2. The time for GPI Campaign Science will be allocated off the top in an amount decided by the Gemini Board following a recommendation from the GSC. It is expected that all partners will contribute to the GPI campaign time in proportion to their partner share.


3. GPI Campaign Projects are to be handled similar to normal proposals in terms of time requests. Each GPI Campaign Proposal will indicate the requested number of hours per semester. Campaign program PIs must be eligible for time on Gemini South. University of Hawaii does not have time at Gemini South at present, so they cannot apply for GPI Campaign Time through the UH host time, but they may apply through the US.


4. A GPI Campaign TAC will assess proposals and make recommendations to the Gemini Director. The GSC will make recommendations on the size and makeup of the TAC following receipt of the Letters of Intent. The Letters will also allow the GSC to identify conflicts of interest when populating the TAC. The Campaign TAC will include representation from the International TAC. This TAC will be the basis for the GPI Campaign Working Group that will evaluate progress of the ongoing approved programs.


5. Gemini will appoint a staff member to be the GPI Campaign Program Manager. This person will be responsible for the oversight of the successful GPI Campaign program(s) and will serve as the interface to Gemini for policy issues. Issues related to operation of the campaign programs will be handled the Head of Science Operations for Gemini South.


6. Gemini will not provide a funding award to support GPI Campaign Science.


7. Approved campaign targets and their observing modes will be made public. Observations using a substantially different mode or instrumental setup may be considered for target duplication in independent programs.


8. The Call for GPI Campaign Proposals is expected to be issued on February 1, 2011, with an expected deadline of March 31, 2011, for receipt of proposals.


9. GPI Campaign Proposals must include:
   • a discussion of the primary scientific goals of the project;
   • a description of the experimental design, including sample selection, use of GPI, scheduling requirements, calibration, etc.;
   • a statement of the time requested by semester and by science ranking band;
   • a description of data products compatible with the international virtual observatory to be delivered, and the timeline for their delivery;
   • a management plan that describes staffing and resources available to complete the science program. The management plan must also describe:
     • the expected contributions of each participant;
     • data management procedures, including access to data within the team;
     • who is responsible for submitting progress reports and final reports;
     • the process for redirecting the research agenda as discoveries are made;
     • the mechanism for routine communication among research team members.

   Additional details about the Campaign Proposals are described in separate document.



10. Each approved GPI Campaign Project will require a “Research Collaboration Agreement” signed by all members of the team before the campaign starts. This document needs to address the following questions:
    • What are the scientific issues, goals, and anticipated outcomes or products of the collaboration?
    • When is the project considered to be complete?
    • What are the expected contributions of each participant?
    • How and by whom will data be managed? How will access to data be managed? How will long-term storage and access to data after the project is complete be handled?
    • Who will write any progress reports and final reports?
    • How will the team decide about redirecting the research agenda as discoveries are made?
    • What will be the mechanism for routine communications among members of the research team (to ensure that all appropriate members of the team are kept fully informed of relevant issues)?
    • How will the team negotiate the development of new collaborations and spin-off projects, if any?
    • How, and by whom, will personnel decisions be made? How and by whom will personnel be supervised?
    • What will be the criteria and the process for assigning authorship and credit?
    • What is the process for pursuing independent or novel results based on the campaign data?
    • How will credit be attributed to each collaborator's institution for public presentations, abstracts, and written articles?
    • How and by whom will public presentations be made?
    • How and by whom will media inquiries be handled?
    • When and how will intellectual property be handled?
    • Should one of the principals of the research team move to another institution or leave the project, how will data, and authorship, and credit be handled?
    • What is the procedure for adding new members to the research team?

    While the SDSS is a much larger collaboration, it may be useful to look at examples of their various collaboration agreements



11. Each successful GPI Campaign Project is to submit annual progress reports to the Gemini Director. These reports should contain (at a minimum) a summary of the observing time used thus far, comments on the quality of the data and whether the data quality is sufficient to meet the scientific goals of the program, a summary of the activities of each team member, the status of reduction of the data, and detailed plans for the next year of the project. With advice from the GPI Campaign Working Group, Gemini and the GSC will assess these reports to determine if continuing campaign observations are warranted.