Wednesday 25 March, 1998 at 11am

Brett Blacker - Space Telescope Science Institute

"Proposal Solicitation and Selection for the 21st Century"

ABSTRACT:"Writing, reviewing, and selecting the proposals which are to define the science programme of any state of the art observatory/space mission are all tasks which have grown in complexity, and as a consequence large amounts of time and effort are currently being invested in this process by proposers as well as reviewers. Viewed from the opposite vantage point, the currently used solicitation and selection process is a significant operational expense: Mailing paper copies of proposals and gathering reviewers for a "Time Allocation Committee" meeting involves a large amount of logistical support and time by the observatory staff. Finally, the batching of proposals into yearly cycles (or six month semesters) increases the time from concept of a scientific idea to receipt of actual data which decreases the ability to respond to new scientific developments and also increases the general operational overhead of handling a large batch of observations. In this talk I explore two experimental steps towards an optimal proposal selection process: streamlining the current process via "paperless" and "groupware" technologies, and use of a "steady state" process which accepts submission of and reviews proposals continuously. The pros and cons of each approach are examined and the requisite enabling technologies are identified."