|
The Telescope System
Instrumentation Program (TSIP)
PROPOSAL REVIEW
A. REVIEW CRITERIA
Review and ranking of all TSIP proposals will be carried out by a peer review panel assembled by NOAO and approved by NSF whose membership excludes NOAO staff. This panel will meet in May, 2002 to conduct their review. Comments will be returned to all proposers following the review panel meeting. The merit review for TSIP proposals will include the same criteria as for proposals submitted to NSF. These criteria are:
What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?
How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative and original concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to resources?
What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?
How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society?
Additional criteria for TSIP proposals will include the following:
- Overall cost-effectiveness of the proposed effort
- Overall value of the proposed amount of time to the U.S. astronomical community
- Degree to which proposed instruments or improvements reflect priorities of the U.S. community
- Overall quality of the management and technical plans for accomplishing the effort
- Broader impacts of the proposed effort on, for example, the improvement of infrastructure for education through involvement of students in the proposed efforts, or the improvement of research infrastructure through the training of instrumentalists
Based on the panel rankings and available funding, NOAO will request NSF approval of subawards to fund successful proposals.
|
