ngVLA Community Studies Program & Science Advisory Council

As part of envisioning a well-designed and budgeted concept for a next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) that will yield transformational science and open a broad swath of new discovery space in the coming decades, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is pleased to announce two new community initiatives.

(1) ngVLA COMMUNITY STUDIES PROGRAM

The NRAO is pleased to issue a Call for ngVLA Community Studies that will enable the community to become major contributors to this effort. These studies will be carried out in Fiscal Year 2017 and will be vital to crafting a well-designed and budgeted concept for consideration by the full community as part of the Astro2020 Decadal Survey. The full Call for ngVLA Community Studies is available on the NRAO webpage.

The proposal submission deadline is 30 September 2016. Pre-proposal telecons regarding this Community Studies Program will be hosted by the NRAO on 18 August 2016 (13:00 EDT) and 7 September 2016 (13:00 EDT). Telecon connection details will be available via the Program website beginning one week prior to each telecon. NRAO anticipates funding most accepted proposals at a modest level to offset publications page charges and travel expenses to a mid-2017 ngVLA Science Conference. Up to a half-dozen of the highest-impact Community Studies may be funded at a more significant level of $10K–$25K USD per award.

(2) ngVLA SCIENCE ADVISORY COUNCIL

The NRAO solicits nominations for membership to the ngVLA Science Advisory Council (SAC) that will act as the interface between the scientific community and NRAO, providing feedback and guidance towards a comprehensive design for a next-generation centimeter-to-millimeter wave interferometer centered around the VLA site in central New Mexico. The Call for Nominations to this SAC is available online.

Nominations and self-nominations are due to NRAO no later than 14 September. We anticipate announcing the SAC membership by 30 September 2016.

Please send any questions regarding these ngVLA community opportunities to Eric Murphy. We hope that you will actively participate in these exciting efforts to enable transformational science at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths in the coming decades.

Eric Murphy & Mark McKinnon (NRAO)