INFORMATION REGARDING BUDGET PROPOSAL SUBMISSION, EVALUATION, SELECTION, AND IMPLEMENTATION
1. PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION
1.1. General Information
The current Announcement covers XMM-Newton Guest Observer (GO) scientific proposals selected by the ESA peer review for observation during AO-8 operations, AO-7 (and AO-8) C-target proposals with scheduled observations, DDT proposals, and joint XMM-Newton/Chandra proposals awarded by the Chandra project. The period of AO-8 observations is expected to cover a 12 month interval beginning around 2009 May.In the proposal review carried out by ESA, the scientific and technical merits of the proposed investigations were judged and time appropriately allocated. The budget proposal process to be carried out by NASA will be responsible for allocating support for the investigations of the qualified accepted proposals. The amount of support for a given investigation will depend on a number of various considerations including, but not limited to, the complexity of the analysis, number of targets and the time allocated to the targets, the priority of the targets, the number of accepted proposals for which the PI (or Co-I of a foreign PI proposal) is requesting support under this announcement, and other sources of funding relevant to this request.
A cost proposal is required for each qualifying investigation for which financial support from NASA is requested. Investigations will be funded for a period of one year commencing nominally upon completion of the proposed observation(s). No-cost extensions will be considered if justified.
Note: All communications with the NASA/GSFC XMM-Newton GOF regarding a specific proposal must include the ESA-supplied identification number for that proposal (the six-digit proposal number currently including a leading zero).
1.2. Proposal Priority and Budget Submission/Funding
Successful proposal targets are prioritized in three categories. Category A and B targets are guaranteed to be observed, while category C targets are used as schedule fillers if time allows or scheduling constraints require. Because the majority of C targets will not be observed, PIs of proposals with only C targets should submit a budget at the time of this budget AO release only if observations have been scheduled. PIs (and Lead Co-Is of foreign PI proposals) of C-target only proposals should submit a budget only if, and when, their targets are scheduled for observation before the end of 2009 April. PIs should contact the GOF at xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov for special instructions when such an observation has been scheduled.The PIs and Lead Co-Is for all proposals containing A and/or B targets, including those proposals which also contain C and ToO targets, must submit budgets in response to this budget AO by the deadline specified below for consideration. For those programs with both A and/or B targets combined with C targets, the funding level will be determined by the A and/or B targets alone, and no further funding will be given for any observed C targets.
1.3. Eligibility
Participation in this budget process is limited to GOs whose primary affiliation is with a US institution, which includes both Principal Investigators (PIs), and Co-investigators (Co-Is) on proposals where the PI is not affiliated with a US institution (known as Foreign PI proposals).1.4. Who May Propose
Only one budget proposal will be allowed for each accepted scientific proposal meeting the above criteria. For scientific proposals where the primary affiliation of the PI is with a US institution, the PI (or Co-I designated by the PI) should submit the budget proposal. For scientific proposals where the primary affiliation of the PI is not with a US institution, the US Co-Is must select a Lead Co-I to be responsible for submitting the budget proposal. Communications concerning the budgets and budget proposals will only be with PIs (or designated Co-I) or Lead Co-Is.Note: In circumstances where institutional rules do not allow a successful science PI to be the budget PI (e.g., for Post-Docs or graduate students at many institutions) the science PI may designate a Co-I to act as the budget PI. A signed letter to that effect explaining the reason must be submitted with the budget proposal. The name of the budget PI should appear as the PI on all forms.
1.5. Subgrants
The use of subgrants to fund co-investigators at secondary institutions is no longer allowed by NASA HQ instructions.1.6. Useful WWW Sites/Pages
- The NASA XMM-Newton AO-8 Budget Solicitation Letter from Dr. Louis J. Kaluzienski
- The Budget Proposal ABC Guide
- The XMM-Newton GOF at NASA/GSFC
- The XMM-Newton Mission Description
- The Budget Proposal Supplement (FAQ)
- The Budget Form Instructions
- The ARK RPS system
- ARK RPS Help
- Documents and Forms, FTP or HTML
- The NASA XMM-Newton AO-8 "Dear Colleague" Letter (from the science proposal AO) from Dr. Louis J. Kaluzienski
- The NASA "Guidebook for Proposers"
2. PROPOSAL FORMAT AND CONTENT
2.1. Proposal Content
All proposals must be typewritten in English.The budget proposal must include:
- standard Cover Page form
- General Form
- Budget Form
- a one to two page justification of the budget (note that a more complete description of requested travel is now required, even if the travel destination is subject to change)
- the 4-5 page scientific justification from the ESA observation AO
- a funding status page listing current and pending support for the PI (a standard form is available in LaTeX, PS, and PDF formats), and
- a short CV (two pages) is required.
The Cover Page, General Form, and Budget Form are generated in RPS. The science justification from the ESA observation proposal in PDF must be uploaded through RPS. The budget justification, current and pending support, and CV must be combined into one PDF document and also uploaded through RPS.
All proposals must be both submitted electronically through RPS and submitted in hard copy. Individuals not having access to the Internet should contact Dr. Steve Snowden at least one month prior to the budget proposal due date at the address given in the Solicitation Announcement.
Detailed Descriptions/Instructions
- The title of the corresponding scientific proposal, the ESA-assigned
proposal number, and the name of the PI or Lead Co-I.
- Item 1: The level of the labor separated into three coarse levels
(Professor or Senior Researcher,
Post-Doc or Junior Researcher, or Graduate Student),
the estimated full-time labor equivalent (FTE, the fraction of a work
year required for the analysis) and the yearly salary plus fringe
benefits.
- Item 2: Estimated costs for equipment, material, computer services, publications, travel (itemize trips in the budget justification, in general, only one trip per team member to a professional society meeting will be supported), and other costs, with explanations. Itemize items over $1000 in the budget justification. Computing requirements are discussed in the Budget Proposal Supplement.
- Item 3: Other applicable costs, with explanation.
- Item 4: Graduate student tuition remission.
- Item 5: Facilities and Administrative costs, including all overheads from
the above items.
Cover Page: The Cover Page is generated through the RPS system, the use of which, including the electronic submission, is mandatory. The Proposal Number provided in the ESA proposal status e-mail must be included on all pages. For proposals from Lead Co-Is of foreign PI proposals, the foreign PI must be listed. The title and abstract should be the same as for the original scientific proposal. It should be limited to 800 characters, including spaces between words, with no embedded commands, i.e., flat ASCII only. Abstracts that exceed this length will be truncated automatically at 800 characters when entered into the data base. Abstracts and target lists will be made available on publicly accessible databases. NOTE: No other cover page should be used for the first page of the proposal. DO NOT attach any institutional cover pages, or any other documentation beyond what is specified in the table below. Proposals which violate this rule are subject to rejection.
General Form: The General Form is generated through the RPS system, the use of which, including the electronic submission, is mandatory. Both institutional endorsement and PI (or Lead Co-I) signatures are required for the hard-copy submission. The 9-digit zip code and Congressional District of the institution must be provided. For the Congressional District please use the format of the two-letter state abbreviation then the ordinal number of the district (e.g., MD 5th). Note that the institutional-endorsement signature on the General Form also doubles as the institutional certification for 1) Lobbying, 2) Debarment/Suspension, and 3) Civil Rights. For reference, the text for these certifications can be found below.
Budget Form: The Budget Form is generated through the RPS system, the use of which, including the electronic submission, is mandatory.
The budget form contains:
PIs with joint US and foreign affiliations must list the fraction of time spent in the US as well as the fraction of support provided by US institutions. The expected duration of the US appointment should also be listed. Note that GO funds cannot be used to pay for the commute between the foreign and US institution.
The Budget Justification must now also include a more complete description
of each travel request, even if subject to change (e.g., 2009 Winter
AAS meeting, Long Beach, Ca, Airfare $XXX, Hotel $XXX, Registration $XXX,
Board $XXX, Ground Transportation $XXX, Incidentals $XXX, where the XXX's
are replaced with appropriate numbers). Describe the purpose of the
proposed travel in relation to the grant and provide the basis of estimate.
In general, only one trip per team member to a professional society
meeting will be supported.
For equipment and other high-cost supplies, describe and explain the need
for items costing more than $1,000. Give the basis for the estimated costs.
Current and Pending Support:
A complete list of awarded and pending research funding support from NASA
or other sources for the Principal Investigator. The information needed
includes: Agency, Grant/Contract
Number, Title, Amount, Starting and Ending Dates, and Level of Effort (percent).
A Current and Pending Support form is available as an annotated
LaTeX file,
an editable PDF file,
and a PS file.
Vitae: CV of the budget PI. The CVs shall be no
more than two pages and shall include
a publication list with the most recent and/or important publications.
Institutional Budgets: Two copies of your
institutional budget forms should be included with the hard copy submission.
These two copies are not to be attached to the ten copies of the budget proposal.
2.2. Page Restrictions and Quantity
Reviewers will consider only those pages in each proposal section that do not exceed the page limits specified below. Please assemble the budget proposal hardcopy in the following order.
Budget Proposal Contents and Page Order
| SECTION | PAGE LIMIT | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| Cover Page | REQUIRED. Must be the standard form produced by RPS, no other cover is necessary or allowed. | |
| General Form | REQUIRED. Must be the standard form produced by RPS, PI signature and institutional endorsement required. | |
| Budget Form | REQUIRED. Must be the standard form produced by RPS. | |
| Budget Justification | REQUIRED. | |
| Scientific Justification | REQUIRED. The 4 or 5 page Scientific Justification from the observation proposal. For ToO budget requests, a one page scientific justification should be submitted. | |
| Current and Pending Funding | REQUIRED. A standard form is available but its use is not required | |
| Vitae | REQUIRED for the budget PI. | |
| Institutional Pages | Do not attach any pages beyond what are listed above to the budget proposal. Violation of this requirement is grounds for rejection of the proposal. | |
| Institutional Budget | As inclusions separate (not attached) from the budget proposal, two copies of your institutional budget if available should be submitted for use in processing the grant |
2.3. Proposal Submission
To conserve paper, proposals should be printed double-sided. Ten (10) hard copies of the budget proposal, signed original on top, and two copies of the institutional budget are due at the following address by the date and time specified below. The electronic submission of the proposal is also due by the date and time.
XMM-Newton Guest Observer Program
Code 662
Building 2, Room 250
Goddard Space Flight Center
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001
301-286-9662
2.4. Type Restrictions
Type should not be smaller than 10 point, and spacing between lines should not be less than 10 points. Margins should be of a reasonable width.2.5. Technical Information Resources
Technical and budget questions concerning the XMM-Newton mission and requests for assistance in proposal submission may be addressed to Dr. Steve Snowden, NASA/GSFC XMM-Newton GOF Manager, at:Dr. Steve SnowdenProgrammatic information can be obtained from Dr. Louis J. Kaluzienski at:
XMM-Newton Guest Observer Facility
Code 662
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
USA
Tel: (301) 286-8100
Fax: (301) 286-1684
E-mail: xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov
Dr. Louis J. Kaluzienski
Science Mission Directorate
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546
Tel: (202) 358-1319
Fax: (202) 358-3096
E-mail: wilton.t.sanders@nasa.gov
2.6. Electronic Forms Submission
As noted above, all proposers must electronically submit their proposals. Proposers who do not have access to electronic communications must contact Dr. Snowden at the above address no later than one month before the submission deadline. Electronic submission facilitates efficient proposal processing and reduces the likelihood of the introduction of transcription errors into the proposal databases. For electronic forms submission, the XMM-Newton Guest Observer Facility has made available Remote Proposal Software (RPS, at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ark/rps/). Detailed information for filling out the forms can be found at the XMM-Newton RPS help page. NOTE: Starting with AO-7, two PDF file uploads are required for electronic submission. The first consists of the (combined) budget justification, support form, and CV; the second is the four or five page scientific justification from the ESA observation proposal.3. PROPOSAL EVALUATION AND IMPLEMENTATION
3.1. Evaluation Criteria
As noted above, the amount of support for a given investigation will depend on a number of various considerations. These include:- The complexity of the analysis - this includes both the type of analysis
and the XMM-Newton instruments to be used in the analysis.
- The number of targets and the time allocated to each target.
- The ranking of the proposal as indicated by the priority of the targets.
- The US or foreign status (as indicated by the primary institutional
affiliation of the PI) of the proposal.
- The number of accepted proposals for which the PI or Co-I is requesting
support under this announcement.
- Other sources of funding relevant to this request.
- The available funding for this program.
3.2. Proposal Evaluation
US XMM-Newton budget proposals will evaluated by a Peer Review panel selected by NASA and supported by the NASA/GSFC XMM-Newton GOF.4. SCHEDULE
The current schedule for the review of the budget proposals is listed below. Note, however, that the dates of events are subject to change.
| DATE | EVENT |
|---|---|
| 2009 February 6 | Release of this Announcement |
| 2009 March 20, 4:30 PM EST | Budget Proposals Due |
| 2009 June | Notification of Results |
| 2009 July | Revised Budgets Due |
Provision of funds to individual GOs will in general occur near the time which the first associated observation is scheduled to be performed. Investigations associated with Priority C or ToO targets will receive funding only if and after the observations have been performed (budgets for ToO proposals must be submitted at the same time as those for A and B proposals, budgets for C proposals should be submitted when the first target is scheduled). Budgets for DDT proposals should follow the same instructions as for C-target proposals.
INSTITUTIONAL CERTIFICATIONS
In accordance with U.S. Code, there are currently two certifications required from every institution, except from U.S. Federal institutions, submitting a proposal, namely,
* Debarment, Suspension, and Other Responsibility Matters;
* Lobbying for Contracts, Grants, Loans and Cooperative Agreements (required only for proposals seeking a cumulative total in excess of $100,000)
In addition, one assurance is currently required,
* Assurance of Compliance with NASA Regulations Pursuant to Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs.
In order to reduce paper work required by the submitting institutions, language is now included on the printout of the proposal Cover Page that confirms that these requirements are met by the proposing institution once that printed item is signed by the Authorizing Institutional Representative and submitted with the proposal. Therefore, these Certifications and Assurances are included in this Guidebook only for reference and information; they should not be submitted with the proposal.
Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, and
Other Responsibility Matters
This certification is required by the regulations implementing Executive Order 12549, Debarment and Suspension, 14 CFR Part 1265, Participant?s responsibilities. The regulations were published as Part VII of the May 26, 1988 Federal Register (pages 19160-19211).
(1) The prospective primary participant certifies to the best of its knowledge and belief, that it and its principals:
- Are not presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded from covered transactions by any Federal department or agency;
- Have not within a three-year period preceding this proposal been convicted of or had a civil judgment rendered against them for commission of fraud or a criminal offense in connection with obtaining, attempting to obtain, or performing a public (Federal, State, or local) transaction or contract under a public transaction; violation of Federal or State antitrust statues or commission of embezzlement theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, or receiving stolen property;
- Are not presently indicted for or otherwise criminally or civilly charged by a governmental entity (Federal, State or local) with commission of any of the offenses enumerated in paragraph (1)(b) of this certification; and
- Have not within three-year period preceding this application/proposal had one or more public transactions (Federal, State, or local) terminated for cause or default.
(2) Where the prospective primary participant is unable to certify to any of the statements in this certification, such prospective participant shall attach an explanation to this proposal.
Certification Regarding Lobbying
- No Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid, by or on behalf of the undersigned, to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with the awarding of any Federal contract, the making of any Federal grant, the making of any Federal loan, the entering into of any cooperative agreement, and the extension, continuation, renewal, amendment, or modification of any Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement.
- If any funds other than Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with this Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement, the undersigned shall complete and submit Standard Form-LLL, "Disclosure Form to Report Lobbying," in accordance with its instructions.
- The undersigned shall require that the language of this certification be included in the award documents for all subawards at all tiers (including subcontracts, subgrants, and contracts under grants, loans, and cooperative agreements) and that all subrecipients shall certify and disclose accordingly.
This certification is a material representation of fact upon which reliance was placed when this transaction was made or entered into. Submission of this certification is a prerequisite for making or entering into this transaction imposed by section 1352, title 31, U.S. Code. Any person who fails to file the required certification shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000, and not more than $100,000 for each such failure.
ASSURANCE OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION REGULATIONS PURSUANT TO NONDISCRIMINATION IN FEDERALLY ASSISTED PROGRAMS
The ________________________________________________
(Institution, corporation, firm, or other organization on whose behalf this assurance is signed, hereinafter called "Applicant")
HEREBY AGREES THAT it will comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-352), Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20U.S.C. 1680 et seq.), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 794), and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (42 U.S.C. 16101 et seq.) and all requirements imposed by or pursuant to the Regulation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (14 CFR Part 1250)(hereinafter called "NASA") issued pursuant to these laws, to the end that in accordance with these laws and regulations, no person in the United States shall, on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, handicapped condition, or age be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity for which the Applicant receives federal financial assistance from NASA; and HEREBY GIVES ASSURANCE THAT it will immediately take any measure necessary to effectuate this agreement.
If any real property or structure thereon is provided or improved with the aid of federal financial assistance extended to the Applicant by NASA, this assurance shall obligate the Applicant, or in the case of any transfer of which federal financial assistance is extended or for another purpose involving the provision of similar services or benefits. If any personal property is so provided, this assurance shall obligate the Applicant for the period during which it retains ownership or possession of the property. In all other cases, this assurance shall obligate the Applicant for the period during which the federal financial assistance is extended to it by NASA.
THIS ASSURANCE is given in consideration of and for the purpose of obtaining any and all federal grants, loans, contract, property, discounts or other federal financial assistance extended after the date hereof to the Applicant by NASA, including installation payments after such date on account of applications for federal financial assistance which were approved before such date. The Applicant recognizes and agrees that such federal financial assistance will be extended in reliance on the representations and agreements made in this assurance, and that the United States shall have the right to seek judicial enforcement of this assurance. This assurance is binding on the Applicant, its successors, transferees, and assignees, and the person or persons whose signatures appear below are authorized to sign on behalf of the Applicant.
If you have any questions concerning XMM-Newton send e-mail to xmmhelp@lists.nasa.gov