As the start of community access to the Gemini telescopes draws near, we have begun to modify the telescope time allocation process. The changes address both the need to accommodate a much larger number of proposals and the desire to integrate access to Gemini (and the independent large telescopes that will provide national access) with access to the smaller NOAO telescopes. The changes described here apply to the KPNO TAC, which will be expanded to include the new facilities. CTIO will be merged into this process at a later date.
As a result of our intention to provide a science context for the telescope time decisions, we consider the TACs to be discipline-based panels, charged with evaluating and ranking the proposals for all telescopes within a certain range of subject areas. This is not a qualitative change from the previous system (with its "Galactic" and "Extragalactic" TACs) but rather an extension of that system in that we will increase the number of TACs depending on the number of proposals, and develop an algorithm for dividing time up among the TACs. (Recall the Galactic/Extragalactic structure evolved from separate TACs that dealt with bright and dark time.) So, for the 1998B round of proposals, we will have three TACs: Galactic, Extragalactic, and Solar System. The creation of the Solar System TAC was driven more by the need to provide a science context for these proposals rather than a requirement to do so based on the number of proposals.
The division of time among subject areas of discipline-based TACs will be proportional to the requests to each TAC. Merging of TAC recommendations will follow numerical grades until 80% of available time is filled. A joint TAC, including representatives of each discipline-based TAC, will consider whether to continue merging to 100% of available time or to modify the sequence based on their evaluation of the individual proposals. The merged, ranked lists for each telescope then go to the site directors for approval.
The individual discipline-based TACs will each have approximately six members including one NOAO staff member. The TAC meeting will be run by a nonvoting chair (our own Dave De Young) whose task it is to keep the discussion moving in a constructive direction. Technical experts will be available to address concerns, but a comprehensive technical review will only be done for those proposals that make it to the schedule.
It will likely take several iterations before this whole process runs smoothly, but that is a motivation for starting these changes now. Further modifications will be made over the next few proposal rounds as we gain experience.
Todd Boroson