Launch of the New NOIRLab Time Allocation System

NOIRLab’s Time Allocation Committee (TAC) meets twice a year to review observing proposals for publicly allocated telescopes, including the US allocation of nights on Gemini North and South. The TAC support team at NOIRLab has been preparing for the long-anticipated launch of the new Time Allocation System (TAS) for the 2022A call for proposals, which was released on 1 September 2021 on the Science website. This launch includes a new TAS infrastructure, starting with proposal submission, through to TAC panel review setup and grading, and principal investigator (PI) notification of acceptance. This more modern system will be easier to maintain, will allow for future upgrades, and will enable us to implement our dual anonymous approach to proposal reviews (which is planned for the 2022B spring semester call).

The new TAS software will change how PIs applying through the NOIRLab TAS prepare their proposals, but it will not affect the submission of Gemini proposals, which are only submitted through the Gemini Phase I Tool (PIT), not the TAS. Changes to the Gemini PIT will be needed to implement a dual anonymous review step for Gemini proposals; work on this is underway.

One big change is that direct LaTeX entry into the proposal form will no longer be supported. Instead, the main text sections of the proposal (Science Justification, Experimental Design, etc.) will be attached as PDF files to the web-based sections of the proposal (Abstract, Runs, PI, co-investigator information, etc.). Templates for the text sections will be provided for use in Overleaf or offline LaTeX (.sty). Examples of acceptable formats will also be provided for PIs who want to attach a formatted PDF created by some other method (e.g., Microsoft Word, Google doc).

Another big change will be the need for proposers to sign in to NOIRLab to create their TAS proposal through the CSDC Single Sign On (SSO) system. While this may be new for some proposers, other facilities (including STScI) also have SSO to better support users in using all available services. For example, by accessing proposals through CSDC’s SSO, PIs will also have authenticated access to their proprietary data hosted by the Astro Data Archive.

Ultimately the advantages of moving to the new TAS will be significant for both staff and proposers. We are excited to roll out the new features, which include the ability to:

• view all of your proposals from a single login;
• create, edit, save, and preview your proposal in seconds;
• collaborate with other scientists on multiple programs;
• add attachments as PDFs with a fairly generous file size limit (formerly users needed to generate small EPS files);
• track your programs as they progress through the TAC process, and view your results and schedule;
• obtain information from the proposal dashboard;
• use familiar tools like Overleaf, Word, or local environments to create attachments.

For questions about the TAS contact us at proposal-help@noirlab.edu 

— Dara Norman (NOIRLab/CSDC) and the TAS Team