The ALMA Director, on behalf of the Joint ALMA Observatory and the partner organisations in East Asia, Europe, and North America, is pleased to announce that the ALMA Cycle 8 Call for Proposals for scientific observations opened on March 17. Users of any nationality or affiliation are invited to submit proposals. Please note that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the original deadline of 15:00 UT on 15 April 2020 has now been delayed to no earlier than 15:00 UT on 19 May 2020. As ALMA continues to monitor the conditions worldwide, it will assess the feasibility of this deadline and provide additional updates to the community as needed. The next update to the community will be provided no later than 21 April 2020 on the status of the call and the support for the scientific community.
ALMA Cycle 8 Call for Proposals Deadline Delayed Due to COVID-19
It is anticipated that 4300 hours of the 12-metre Array time and at least 3000 hours of the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) time, also known as the Morita Array, will be available for successful proposals from Principal Investigators (PIs) in Cycle 8 (including a supplementary call). Proposals must be prepared and submitted using the ALMA Observing Tool (OT), which is available for download from the ALMA Science Portal. Proposals will be assessed by competitive peer review by a single international review committee.
ALMA provides continuum and spectral-line capabilities for wavelengths from 0.32 mm to 3.6 mm, and angular resolutions from 0.02” to 3.4” on the 12-metre Array. Cycle 8 will bring several new observational capabilities to ALMA, including solar observations in Band 5, VLBI observations of faint science targets, high-frequency observations (Bands 9 and 10) with the stand-alone 7-metre Array, mosaicking of continuum linear polarisation observations (Bands 3 to 7) and spectral scans with the 7-metre Array. In an effort to reduce biases as much as possible, ALMA will use a dual-anonymous proposal review process starting in Cycle 8.
The ALMA Proposer’s Guide provides an overview of significant changes made in both the technical capabilities and observing strategies for Cycle 8, an overview of the ALMA organisation, the types of proposals offered in Cycle 8, information on proposal planning and submission, an overview of the offered technical capabilities, and guidelines for writing a Technical Justification. A comprehensive description of the ALMA observatory and its components can be found in the ALMA Technical Handbook.
For more information on the Cycle 8 Call for Proposals please consult the ALMA Science Portal.