The JWST science community was extremely busy in late October! By the Cycle 3 deadline at 8 pm Eastern Time on the 25th, STScI had received 1,931 unique proposals, comprising 1,753 General Observing (GO) proposals, 39 Survey proposals, and 139 Archival Research (AR) proposals. This is almost 100 more proposals than the previous record, the 1,838 proposals submitted in response to the Cycle 6 Call by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). 

The proposals were submitted by 6,008 unique investigators from across the world, representing 56 countries, 47 states, and 2 U.S. territories. Sixty-three proposals were led by Canadian PIs and 624 by PIs from ESA member countries. The total time requested is almost 48,800 hours, corresponding to a ~9:1 over-subscription of observing time. The median proposal requested 19.7 hours. As in past cycles, the most popular science category was “Galaxies and the Intergalactic Medium,” closely followed by “Exoplanets and Disks."

Spectroscopy continues to dominate the science program, accounting for 72% of the requested time. The remainder is devoted to imaging, with the majority split between NIRCam and MIRI. NIRSpec remains the most popular instrument, followed by MIRI, NIRCam, and NIRISS. JWST continues to offer joint programs with other observatories, with 77 proposals received for observations with ALMA, Chandra, HST, Keck, XMM, NOIRLab, and NRAO.

The proposals will be reviewed by the ~500 community scientists who constitute the JWST Cycle 3 Telescope Allocation Committee (TAC). The smallest proposals (<15 hours) are sent out for distributed review in the community. The remaining small and medium proposals are sent to sixteen topical panels that meet virtually between January 29 and February 2. The large, treasury, and legacy proposals are discussed by the Executive Committee (EC), comprising the discussion panel chairs, several at-large members, and the TAC Chair. The EC meets at STScI from February 5 to 7, 2024.