Fast Turnaround Program Coming Soon

Starting in January 2015 users from most Gemini partners will be able to short-circuit the regular six-month proposal cycle. Under the new “Fast Turnaround” (FT) program, there will be a proposal deadline at the end of each month. At the deadline, the proposals will be distributed to reviewers, who are the Principal Investigators (or designated co-Investigators) of other proposals received during the same cycle. The results of this peer review will then be used by Gemini staff to construct the final list of accepted proposals from that (monthly) round. Within three weeks PIs will be told whether they have been awarded time, and accepted programs will be observed in a “mini-queue” on three dedicated FT nights each month, remaining valid for the following three months. The scheme will initially run as an open-ended experiment limited to a maximum of 10% of Gemini North telescope time. See the web pages describing the FT program and more background in the October GeminiFocus (page 18, available as a PDF download or for e-reader). Questions and comments are welcome, and should be sent to fast.turnaround@gemini.edu.