HST Call for Proposals for Cycle 21

In recognition of the unique UV capabilities of Hubble coupled with the finite lifetime of the mission, a UV Initiative is being introduced in Cycle 21. This initiative will use orbit allocations to increase the share of primary GO observing time dedicated to UV observations. Both the review panels and the TAC will have UV orbit allocations. The allocations will be advisory, not quotas, and UV proposals recommended for acceptance must meet the usual requirement of high scientific quality set for all successful Hubble proposals (see Section 6.2). Small (Section 3.2.1), Medium (Section 3.2.2), Large (Section 3.2.3), and Treasury (Section 3.2.6) GO Programs can benefit from the UV Initiative. SNAP programs are not eligible to benefit. Two conditions must be met for a GO proposal to be eligible.

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The proposal must use the UV capabilities of Hubble. The eligible instrument modes (with central wavelength <3200 Angstroms) are ACS/SBC imaging (all filters), COS spectroscopy (all modes), STIS/MAMA spectroscopy and imaging (all gratings and filters), STIS/CCD spectroscopy (UV gratings only), and WFC3/UVIS imaging (UV filters F200LP, F300X, F218W, F225W, F275W, F336W, FQ232N, FQ243N, and F280N), and WFC3/UVIS G280 grism spectroscopy.

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The UV observations must be essential to the proposed science investigation. This condition will automatically be met for UV-only proposals (those that request UV observations only). For proposals requesting both UV and optical/IR observations, the scientific necessity for the UV observations must be carefully justified in the Special Requirements section of the proposal.

Proposers must check the UV Initiative box in APT to identify whether their proposal qualifies for the benefit based on the above criteria. Depending on the response in Cycle 21, the UV Initiative may be extended to future cycles.

Ultraviolet Archival Proposals

The UV Initiative also extends to archival proposals, in the Regular AR (Section 3.4.1), Legacy AR (Section 3.4.2) and Theory (Section 3.4.4) categories. STScI will ask the review panels and the TAC to give particular consideration to UV-specific archival proposals in the review process, provided they lead to UV high level data products and tools for the Hubble archive, and enable broader use of those datasets by the community, or (in the case of Theory proposals) provide new models or theories to aid in the interpretation of UV HST data.

For archival programs that propose the joint analysis of UV and optical/IR datasets, the UV datasets must be essential to the scientific investigation for the UV Initiative benefit to apply. In this case, the proposers should carefully justify the importance of the UV component of their program in the Special Requirements section of the proposal.

AR proposers should check the UV Initiative box in APT to identify their proposal as eligible for the benefit.