NRAO Policy on Proposal Conflicts

With the increasingly flexible capabilities now being offered on NRAO telescopes, there may more frequently be partial conflicts between proposals in terms of source(s), array configuration (VLA), observing band, correlator/spectrometer set-up, and science goals. For proposals submitted on the regular proposal submission deadlines, proposal conflicts are handled by the normal proposal evaluation and time allocation process. For the VLA, please consult the list of active triggered proposals for possible conflicts. Proposals for Director's Discretionary Time (DDT), however, may be submitted at any time and may conflict with a proposal that has already been approved through the standard time allocation process, or has previously been observed with the data still proprietary. Under these circumstances, for the overlapping science goals,

- Any proposal that has been previously approved through the normal time allocation process with priority A or B, but has not yet been observed, will take precedence over the DDT proposal.

- Proprietary data that have already been observed, including that for priority C projects, at the time of the DDT proposal submission will also take precedence over the DDT proposal.

The DDT proposal will be evaluated only on that part its science goals that cannot be derived from the observations associated with the previously-approved proposal or previously observed proprietary data conflicted with the DDT proposal. If a DDT proposal is approved on these grounds, the DDT team may be given the option of either:

- employing an observing set-up that does not conflict with the previously-approved or previously-observed proposals, or

- to use their proposed set-up; in this case the conflicting/overlapping data will be made immediately available to the proposers of the previously-approved proposal.

The definition of the conflicting/overlapping data will be determined by the Observatory.

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Modified on Wednesday, 17-May-2017 14:23:00 MDT