AS2 membership에 대하여
회원들께
AS2 프로포잘이 구체화되어 제출을 앞두고 있습니다. 이에 가입희망자들의 지원을 바라고 있습니다. 협조 편지입니다. 또 그 아래에는 AS2 가입 회원에 대한 규정을 첨부하였습니다.
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Richard Kron <rich@oddjob.uchicago.edu> 날짜 2007년 05월 23일 09:28:00 (서버에서) 받은 시각 : 2007년 05월 23일 09:30:06 메일제목 Institutional support for the AS2 project
Dear colleagues:
This note concerns a number of aspects of institutional support for the After SDSS-II (AS2) project.
AS2 is preparing funding proposals to agencies, and as for SDSS, we need to show strong institutional support. We are assuming that the institutions will collectively provide 30% or so of the total cash and in-kind requirements.
When the proposals are submitted, it will therefore be important to include letters of interest from potential institutional partners. If your institution is interested, the following gives an example of a non-committal but still useful response. If your Department can make a stronger statement, even better. (Please make sure responses from Departments are coordinated - we need one per institution, of course).
Example letter of support for proposals:
Dear Richard and Daniel:
Astronomers in my Department have read the white paper describing the "After SDSS-II" (AS2) project, and have found the scientific program to be of exceptional interest and a good match to our Department's planned direction in the next several years.
We strongly support the proposals for AS2 being prepared for submission to funding agencies. One way that we can help is contribute to AS2 as an institutional partner. We are starting to explore the level at which we may be capable of joining, and we will keep you informed as these discussions progress.
Sincerely yours,
X. Y. Z. Chair
Separately, last month I sent an appeal for "at-risk" small contributions to SDSS-II Advisory Council members and ARC Board of Governors members. I am pleased that the response was good, but it may be worth repeating some of those words in case we missed some opportunities. Excerpting,
"I would now like to ... request volunteered contributions at the $20k level, or whatever amount makes sense from the point of view of matching interest with risk. In-kind effort will be gratefully accepted if it can apply against the near-term needs and if this effort is identified by the AS2 management as critical for the project. Funds received will be kept in a special account by Mike Evans, separate from SDSS-II accounts, and the funds will be spent (or the in-kind work directed) by Daniel with the oversight of the SC. When AS2 eventually raises the rest of the necessary funds and is otherwise successful, then any cash contributed now would of course count towards the institutional membership fee in AS2. If AS2 is not successful, then these funds may not be repaid.
It is worth noting that raising some money now will provide a demonstration of support ... that will be an asset during early discussions with funding agencies."
Finally, the AS2 Steering Committee has converged on the rules for contributions to AS2 for institutional membership. The following gives the text, which is supposed to be self-contained, but please contact me if you have any questions.
Regards,
Rich Kron for the AS2 Steering Committee
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Procedures for Obtaining Membership in After SDSS-2 05/22/07
This document outlines ground rules for institutional membership in the After SDSS-2 (AS2) surveys. These rules are proposed by the AS2 Steering Committee for the approval of the ARC Board of Governors. After the initial AS2 collaboration has formed, the Steering Committee will transfer authority to the Advisory Council (AC), a body with representation from the institutional partners. At that point the Advisory Council may opt to modify these rules (again with the approval of the ARC Board of Governors). The scenarios and budgets described in this document are preliminary and subject to modification.
AS2 is planned as a six-year survey, with observations beginning in July 2008, and ending in June 2014. An additional year of support for data processing and archiving will be required. AS2 is comprised of four individual surveys: SEGUE-II, MARVELS, APOGEE, and BOSS. Participation in AS2 includes the entirety of the project, as opposed to selections of individual surveys. Hence, membership in AS2 provides institutions with access to all of the data, even if particular institutions or individuals confine their efforts to a limited subset of the surveys.
Membership in AS2
Membership in AS2 is open to individual institutions; other collaborative buy-in arrangements will be considered on a case-by-case basis if there are compelling and mutually beneficial reasons to do so. Membership in AS2 is recommended by the Steering Committee (and ultimately by the Advisory Council) to the ARC Board of Governors. One criterion for membership is a tangible contribution to the construction or operating needs of the AS2, as described below.
Full Institutional Membership includes data rights for an unlimited number of participants from the institution. Full Membership is expected to require a total contribution of a particular amount that is expected to be between $750k and $1M, depending on the number of partners recruited and the success of other fund-raising efforts. In most cases this membership fee would be paid in annual installments over the lifetime of the project, where front-loading of payments is necessary to fund the required hardware and software upgrades. All partners are encouraged to join as Full members.
To accommodate institutions that cannot commit to a Full membership, Associate Institutional Membership includes data rights for a specified number of Participants, where the cost-per-Participant is set to one-fifth of the cost of a Full membership. These Participants would be named, as opposed to pooled. Participants are understood to be long-term scientific staff, e.g. faculty (tenured and non-tenured), research-track scientists, and equivalent. Participation rights can be moved from one researcher to another with the consent of the Director; the Director (and AC if necessary) has the authority to limit over-use of this flexibility. Each Participant is allowed to share data-access rights with one postdoctoral fellow. Graduate students, undergraduate students, and individuals within two years of their first bachelor degree (e.g., individuals working for a year before going to graduate school) are limited to those working directly with one of the Participants. Postdocs and other professionals who are supported by AS2, or whose work is counted as an in-kind contribution, will also have data-access and other participatory privileges so long as they are spending the majority of their time on an activity acknowledged by AS2 to be of general service to the project. A minimum of three Participants is required to have a vote on the AC, to have a representative on the collaboration Council (CoCo), and to be listed as a member on official boilerplate. However, an institution may join with one or two participants.
Contributions to AS2
Contributions can be cash or in-kind, and measured in US dollars. Only direct costs will be counted as in-kind contributions (i.e. including fringe benefits but excluding institutional overheads). All in-kind contributions need to specifically address items in the Director's budget and must be approved by the Management Committee (MC) and the AC. Hardware and software developed previously for SDSS, SDSS-II, and the ET Pilot Program would generally not be counted as an in-kind contribution for AS2.
AS2 will have seven annual payment periods, starting in January, 2008, and ending in December 2014. The requested contribution schedule will be frontloaded with a minimum profile such that 3/14 is due in 2008, 1/7 in 2009 through 2013, and 1/14 in 2014. Frontloaded payments in excess of the nominal profile will receive a small (3% per year) adjustment for anticipated inflation as a means to encourage earlier contributions. Additional encouragement may be granted by the SC and AC to provide a bonus of up to 10% if offered funds in 2007 and 2008 are required to meet the AS2 cost profile. For example, if one paid the entire cost in 2007, this benefit (10% plus 3% inflation adjustment) would be about 81 cents on the dollar.
It is anticipated that payments will be required no later than the first quarter of each calendar year of the survey, beginning in 2008. It is understood that 2008 contributions carry some risk, as they will likely be due before full funding is assured.
It is recognized that there may be cases in which institutions cannot commit (or fulfill) their full contribution for the seven-year period. Such institutions will forfeit their rights to data taken after the default of payment, although specific situations will be dealt with as they arise by the Director, the MC and the AC.
It is anticipated that some data processing, archiving and release costs will be incurred in 2015. The AS2 project will strive to handle institutional contributions towards these expenses by careful forward budgeting, rather than by additional requests for funding.
The AS2 project intends to negotiate a waiver of overhead rates with MOU partners as part of work packages. SDSS, SDSS-II, and the 3.5-m telescope were projects undertaken by ARC that set an example whereby in general ARC member institutions and MOU partners waived recovery of indirect costs on work conducted at the respective institutions. This policy (of having institutions where work is done carrying the burden of the IDC costs) was a significant indicator of commitment to the funding agencies for SDSS and SDSS-II, and we can expect the same to be true for AS2.
Governance in AS2
Full and Associate Institutional Members with at least three Participants have equal representation and voting rights on the AC and CoCo (i.e., one vote per institution) and will be listed as institutional partners on official project boilerplate.
