ALMA Cycle 6 call for proposals

The call for proposals for ALMA Cycle 6 was released on March 20. Keydates for the next Cycle of ALMA observations are:

  • 20 March 2018: Official call for proposals, release of the Cycle 6 OT, and opening of the archive for proposal submission

  • 19 April 2018: Proposal deadline

  • 18-23 June 2018: Proposal review meeting

  • End of July 2018: Results of proposal review sent to Proposers

  • 6 September 2018: Deadline for phase 2 submission by Proposers

  • October 2018 - September 2019: ALMA Cycle 6 observations

In Cycle 6 ALMA will offer

  • Band 8 in standard mode
  • Band 8 ACA standalone
  • Full polarisation Bands 3 to 7
  • Band 6 IF extension

A full summary of expected Cycle 6 capabilities is available at the Science Portal.

Support from the Nordic ARC node

In order to make increased capabilities in ALMA Cycle 6 accessible to the entire Nordic astronomical community, we at the Nordic ARC node offer our help and support in planning, setting up, optimizing, and submitting your ALMA project. We are happy to support existing ideas, and in particular encourage the development of new projects to submit.

We specifically provide full support to non-experts for the entire proposal process.

Cycle 6 support activities

For Cycle 6 we will visit your institute to provide direct, individual support for your projects. You can receive help by an ALMA expert from the Nordic ARC node in two ways during our visit to the institute:

  • Individual, in-office support: You can book a time with an ALMA expert who will visit you in your office and give you direct, hands-on help in planning your project, estimating sensitivities, optimizing the technical setup of ALMA, setting up the project in the Observing Tool, and submitting your project to the ALMA observatory. Also after the visit, the ARC node staff member will act as a Friend of the project for your proposal.

  • Group-meeting support: If you as a group would want to discuss and/or develop new ALMA projects, you can plan a group meeting during our visit to your institute, and our ARC node staff will attend. We can help determine the appropriate capabilities, and help discuss a strategy for setting up the project for ALMA submission. Also here, the ARC node staff member will act as a Friend of the project and be available to support you in your proposal until the deadline.

These two forms of support are not mutually exclusive, and you will be able to book individual support in addition to group-meeting support.

Dates for ARC node staff visit to your institute

An ARC node representative will visit your respective institutes on the following dates:

  • Stockholm/Uppsala, at the Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University: Wednesday, March 21.
  • Oslo, at the Institute for theoretical astrophysics: Wednesday, March 21.
  • Copenhagen: Tuesday, March 27.

For further questions and suggestion, do not hesitate to contact us.

We look forward to meeting you soon!

Other support pathways

There are a number of different pathways to contact the Nordic node and to receive help with your proposal. You can use any of these pathways to

  • ask questions on ALMA in general.
  • ask about minor and major change requests.
  • ask questions on the OT and how to setup your project.
  • setup a face-to-face visit in Onsala or face-to-face support via skype.
  • ask questions on the proposal submission and selection procedure.
  • ask about any other issue you can think of!

Contact through the ALMA helpdesk
PIs of successful proposals were assigned a contact scientist at the Nordic ARC node, and a helpdesk ticket for communication was opened. You can find the helpdesk here.

Direct contact to the node
You can contact the node directly for support by sending us an email: contact@nordic-alma.se. You can also contact us by skype or find an ARC node member directly. See our contact page for full details.