The stage-I selection process for the Fermi Cycle-16 Guest Investigator program has been completed. There were a total of 36 new programs selected for stage I out of 90 proposals submitted. A list of the selected programs, including the PIs, titles and abstracts is available on the FSSC web site.
Information regarding past selections including a historical summary of the GI program is available on this web site for anyone interested.
If you have been asked to submit a budget for your Cycle-16 proposal you will be required to use the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES). Stage-II proposals are due by 16:30 EDT June 28, 2023.
Both you and your institution must be registered with NSPIRES. Because of the time this may take, register now, and if you think you are registered, check now to make sure your registration is current.
The Fermi Guest Investigator Program provides funding for direct analysis of Fermi data, for supporting observations in other wavebands, for complementary theoretical studies, and more. The deadline for proposals is typically in February of each year.
Fermi PIs can propose to:
Fermi proposals may be submitted by investigators at both US and non-US institutions, but only proposals with a PI employed by and a resident at US institutions may receive funding from NASA. Any funded Co-Is must also be affiliated with and resident at a US institution.
There are two proposal classes: (1) Regular proposals with research plans that can be completed in one year, and (2) Large proposals whose research plans are more expansive and may take up to three years to complete. Regular and Large proposals have distinct page limits and budget caps and annual reporting procedures. Please refer to the Fermi appendix of the ROSES NRA for details. The large majority of selected proposals are expected to be among the Regular proposal category.
As a resource to proposers list of the titles and abstracts of programs selected in previous mission cycles is available here.
Multiwavelength observations made in conjunction with Fermi scientific investigations have the potential to enhance the scientific return of the mission and advance the field. The Fermi project has thus established a number of joint observation programs. The Fermi GI program can award optical, radio, X-ray or gamma-ray observations through Fermi's joint programs with NRAO, NOIRLab, VERITAS, and INTEGRAL. Note that only a single year of joint-program observations can be awarded through the Fermi GI Program regardless of the duration of awarded Fermi support. It should also be noted that for successful proposals to any of these joint programs it will be the responsibility of the PI to contact the respective observatory staff regarding scheduling arrangements, instrument configurations or other specific requirements. There are a number of important technical and policy details regarding these joint programs and prospective proposers should to refer to the respective MOUs:
http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/proposals/nrao.html,
http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/proposals/noirlab.html,
http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/proposals/veritas.html
http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/proposals/integral.html, and
http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/proposals/tess.html
Proposers to the Fermi program may also apply for high-end computing resources in support of their research.
Again, please note that the joint-observation programs awarded through Fermi are for one year only. We encourage all perspective proposers to consider taking advantage of these joint-program opportunities.
The recent announcement by NASA HQ that all NASA GI/GO programs will transition to a Dual Anonymous Peer-Review process includes Fermi and this policy is in effect for Cycle-14 and beyond. Guidelines for preparing a dual-anonymous proposal are described in the Fermi appendix (D.6) to the ROSES NRA (sec. 2.2.2) or at this website. Please review them carefully. Failure to comply with these guidelines could result in the disqualification of a proposal.
In recent proposal cycles about 2-5% of the submissions failed to comply with the formatting requirements that are clearly stated in the Fermi NRA, and reproduced below. Please avoid having your proposal be penalized or out-and-out rejected by following the straight forward and reasonable format requirements.
Excerpted from the Fermi NRA: "Proposals should be single-spaced, typewritten, English-language text, using one column, and using an easily read font size of 12-point or larger and no more than 15 characters per horizontal inch. No smaller font should be used in the subsections of the proposal, including references, however, figure captions can be in fonts as small as 10-point. In addition, the proposal shall have no more than 5.5 lines per inch of text. Pages should have at least one-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides. Proposals not conforming to the format above will be declared noncompliant and rejected without any further review."
Final Cycle-16 call for proposals (ROSES D.6) released | |
Proposals Due | February 16, 2023 |
Proposal Peer Review | April/May 2023 |
Stage-2 Proposal Solicitation | June 2023 |
Final Selections Announced | July 2023 |
Fermi Cycle-16 Begins | August 4, 2023 |
Cycle-16 Grants Issued | ~Oct/Nov 2023 |
The Fermi GI Review is typically held in the spring, and results are communicated to the Principal Investigators weeks later. Additional interested reviewers are always welcome. If you would like to be considered as a reviewer, please send an e-mail to the HEASARC Peer Review mailbox.
If accepted, the Principal Investigator will be notified to submit Phase 2 budget proposals through NSPIRES. Details of the submission will be provided in the proposal acceptance letter.
Fermi's proposal process will have two Phases. In Phase 1 you will submit a cover page and a scientific justification; the cover page (generated by a webform) will include a maximum budget cap and the scientific justification should include a brief work plan that describes the resources required (e.g., FTE). The page limit for this section is 4 pages for a Regular proposal, and 6 pages for a Large proposal. An additional page describing technical details of your proposed NRAO, Arecibo, VERITAS, NOIRLab, INTEGRAL, or TESS observations is required if you are applying under the joint proposal opportunity. A peer review panel will review your Phase 1 proposal, and you will submit a Phase 2 budget proposal only if your Phase 1 proposal has been tentatively accepted.
This information is retained for historical reference only. Please refer exclusively to the documents pertaining to the current proposal cycle in preparing your proposal.