The Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
invites scientists to participate in the call for proposals of
observing time at the three national radio telescopes:
- the 32-m
Medicina
Grueff Radio Telescope
- the 32-m
Noto
antenna
- the 64-m
Sardinia Radio
Telescope
Two observing semesters are scheduled every year: 1st January to
30th June, 1st July to 31st December.
Deadlines fall in early October and early April, respectively.
Below we report the time INAF plans to award for the next
semester
2025A:
- Medicina: up t0 300 hours (1)
- Noto: up to 500 hours (2)
- SRT: 2000 hours (3)
These amounts might be subject to modification, due to
maintenance needs and to the variability of the commitments
resulting from international agreements.
(1) MEDICINA ACTIVE SURFACE INSTALLATION
The Medicina dish is at present not available, due to the
installation of the active surface on its primary mirror. Its
availability for semester 2025A is not expected to exceed 300
hours, likely to be scheduled only in June 2025.
(2) NOTO ONLY PARTIALLY AVAILABLE
Due to major maintenance, the Noto dish will only be
partially available. Some devices are offered in shared-risk
mode. Details are provided in the above-mentioned website.
(3) SRT IN SHARED-RISK MODE
SRT is in a high frequency upgrade phase. In the 2025A semester
it is offered in "shared-risk" mode and with a limited number of
receivers.
Please note -
We inform that single-dish observations with Noto can now be
carried out remotely, as it happens for Medicina, although
with different procedures.
Details will be provided in due time by the user support.
Acknowledgements - Papers including data/results
obtained with the Italian radio telescopes must contain the
appropriate acknowledgements, i.e.:
For the Sardinia Radio Telescope: "The Sardinia Radio
Telescope is funded by the Ministry of University and
Research (MIUR), Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the
Autonomous Region of Sardinia (RAS) and is operated as
National Facility by the National Institute for Astrophysics
(INAF)."
After completion of their observations, TA supported
scientists are required to submit their feedback to the ORP
project management and the EU. Publications based on these
observations should be acknowledged accordingly: "The
research leading to these results has received funding from
the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 101004719 [ORP]."
For Medicina and/or Noto: "The Medicina[Noto] radio
telescope is funded by the Ministry of University and
Research (MIUR) and is operated as National Facility by the
National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF)."
SRT participates in the Transnational Access
program of the Opticon Radionet Pilot program (https://www.orp-h2020.eu/apply-transnational-access).
The program can give financial support to a member of eligible
projects to visit SRT for the observations. The Opticon
RadioNet Pilot program is funded by the EC Horizon 2020
Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No.
101004719 (https://www.orp-h2020.eu/)
Time Allocation Committee
Proposals will be reviewed and ranked on the basis of their
scientific merit by a
Time Allocation
Committee (TAC) of experts.
How to apply
Here is a list of useful indications and resources for those
wanting to apply for observing time:
- Consult the announcement page - taking note of the
proposal deadlines - and carefully read the general guidelines
- Refer to the offered
programs to decide which type best suits the project
you have in mind
- Visit the observational status
summary of the three radio telescopes to determine the
technical feasibility of your program, which instruments are
available or appropriate, and estimate how much time is
required to complete the observations
- Download and fill out the proposal
form. In particular, in addition to the scientific
justification, the proposal must include a clear description
of the requested technical details required to achieve the
scientific goal: e.g. choice of band receiver(s), back-ends,
scheduling constraints (if any), RFI issues, flux
calibration strategy, required flux sensitivity as well as
the on-source integration time and total observing time
including overhead
For inquiries and updates please contact us by writing to
radioproposal
at inaf.it
General guidelines
The three antennas shall be seen as a single coordinated
facility so that users can submit a single proposal to request
time at one or more than one telescope.
Please consult the following general guidelines:
- Observing with our
telescopes
- Which antenna to use?
- Italian VLBI
- Recovery of lost
observing time
- MoU and LoIs policy
- EATING VLBI
- Proprietary time
- Disclosure of
proposal information
Offered programs
The offered observing programs types are:
- Guest projects
- Large projects
- Long (multi-term) projects
- NAPA proposals
- ToO projects
All of these programs are TAC-evaluated and must be submitted
using the official proposal form. Except for ToOs, which can be
submitted at any time, all other proposals must be submitted at
the regular deadlines. ToO
evaluation
and observations will be carried out quickly if the requested
telescope is available.
Users can exceptionally apply for DDT (
Director Discretionary Time)
outside the regular calls. This is time at the disposal of the
Directors of the institute(s) hosting the telescope(s).
INAF may also promote
Legacy
programs. These are very large projects that address broad
scientific goals that are of interest to the scientific
community at large.
Observational Status Summary
We strongly recommend the observers read the detailed
information about the observational status of the three radio
telescopes provided via the following page, which also links to
useful tools (Exposure Time Calculator, source visibilty tool,
etc.):
Here is a summary of the available receivers and back-ends:
