ALMA Cycle 7 call for proposals

The call for proposals is now closed!

ALMA Cycle 7 observations will start in October 2019 and continue to September 2020. Below are key dates for Cycle 7 observations.

  • 19 March 2019: Official call for proposals, release of the Cycle 7 OT, and opening of the archive for proposal submission

  • 17 April 2019: Proposal deadline at 15:00 UT

  • End of July 2019: Results of proposal review sent to Proposers

  • 5 September 2019: Deadline for phase 2 submission by Proposers

  • October 2019 - September 2020: ALMA Cycle 7 observations


ACA Stand-alone observations will be offered both with the regular Cycle 7 call for proposals, and in an additional supplemental call with a deadline October 1st.

Click here for the full ALMA Cycle 7 call for proposals.

NOTE: Baselines longer than 8,5km (configurations C-9 and C-10) will NOT be offered in Cycle 8! These configurations will only be available again in Cycle 9!

In Cycle 7 ALMA offers

  • Band 7 out to 16km baselines
  • Solar observations in Band 7 in
    C43-1 and C43-2
  • Solar observations in Band 3 in additional configuration C43-4
  • Improved sensitivity limit for FDM polarization

A full summary of expected Cycle 7 capabilities is available on the ALMA science portal.

You can also download the Cycle 7 capabilities poster here.

Support from the Nordic ARC node

In order to make increased capabilities in ALMA Cycle 7 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 7 support activities

For Cycle 7 we will provide direct, individual support for your projects. You can receive help by an ALMA expert from the Nordic ARC node in two ways:

  • 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.

We primarily plan to visit your institute to provide direct F2F support.
You are also at any time welcome to visit us, or book support via remote-F2F.

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
If you request help through the ALMA helpdesk, the ticket will be delegated to us for further support.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.