STScI announces the selected JWST General Observer programs for Cycle 2. This follows the review of submitted proposals by the JWST Telescope Allocation Committee, which made recommendations to the STScI Director, who approved the final selection. The selection is balanced across a wide range of science topics from asteroids and exoplanets to cosmology, with a distribution that matches the submitted proposals. More detailed information about the approved proposals is now available.

The Cycle 2 GO program includes 249 proposals for approximately 5,000 hours of JWST prime time and up to 1,215 hours of parallel time, as well as 8 archival and 8 theory proposals. This establishes the program for JWST’s second year of science operations, reflecting the aspirations of the worldwide community of observers. The selected proposals were prepared by more than 2,088 unique investigators from 41 countries, including 38 US states and territories, 14 ESA member states, and 6 Canadian provinces. Ten percent of the proposals are led by student Principal Investigators.

The Cycle 2 GO prime time is distributed as follows:

• 48% to small programs (less than 25 hours)
• 35% to medium programs (25 to 75 hours)
• 17% to large programs (more than 75 hours)

JWST is now poised to build on its first year of discoveries. Selection of the General Observer programs represents a tremendous effort by the ~5,450 investigators who submitted proposals, the 225 community members who served as expert reviewers, the 350 members of the Telescope Allocation Committee, and the JWST teams at STScI and NASA.