Following  the approval of the KMOS Public Survey (KPS) proposals by the OPC,  the selected teams are now invited to prepare a KMOS survey management plan, whose approval by ESO is mandatory before final acceptance and start of a public survey.

The milestones for the process leading to the preparation, submission and approval of the KMOS Survey Management Plans (SMPs) are 

• Submission of the SMP on 09.09.2025 by the OPC selected KMOS PS teams
• Feedback by the ESO Survey team (EST)  on 07.10. 2025
• Submission of the revised SMPs by 04.11.2025 with report to be shared with OPC in November. 
• Start of operations is set for 01.01.2026.

Useful information

The templates (latex, word) are available, which include guidelines for the compilation of the different sections by the selected teams

1. A folder with LaTeX template for the SMP is available here.
2. A pdf example of the SMP is available here.
3. A Word template for the SMP is available here
4. Please submit any enquire to https://support.eso.org

Please consider the following conditions:

• The start of data acquisition for the KPS is January 1^st 2026. Observations for the KPS will be executed either in designated Visitor mode (remotely) or in Visitor mode on Paranal or in Service mode; the total allocation is 140 nights maximum for Galactic and 145 nights maximum for Extragalactic KPS. The runs to be scheduled in P116 are all allocated in visitor mode (VM). It will be the opportunity for the survey teams to get “hand-on” their observations, gaining experience in sight of the very large allocation they will have in the future. ESO would then consider a time-variable VM/SM fraction as of P117, starting with 50/50 VM/SM and with a possible ramp down (30/70 VM/SM) towards the completion of the surveys.
• No proprietary time will be granted; raw data will become immediately available via the ESO Science Archive Facility.
• The ESO Science Archive Facility will be the repository of the survey products and provide the primary access of these products to the ESO community.  Survey data products are to be prepared according to the ESO science data product standard and submitted in agreement with the policies for ESO Phase 3. The teams will be responsible for the processing and validating the data products. Regular survey data product releases are expected every year.
• Progress of the approved KMOS surveys will be reviewed regularly by ESO and the PSP. Corrective steps will need to be identified in cases where the survey execution is delayed, or the data product delivery schedule cannot be maintained.