NASA grant funding is crucial to enabling the US astronomical community to exploit the scientific opportunities offered by JWST observations. Currently, grant funding is allocated to US proposers in response to budget proposals submitted by the selected PIs. The proposals are reviewed by a Financial Review Committee (FRC), with membership drawn from the community, which reviews the budgets for reasonableness, allowability and scope. The process can involve a second iteration as the PIs write a second budget to match cuts recommended by the FRC. Other NASA missions begin with a formula; proposers who stay within their formulaic maximum are usually approved through a simplified review. All budgets need to be reviewed for compliance with general grants provisions.
A Working Group was requested by the JWST Users Committee (JSTUC) to review the grant allocation process. The Working Group is constituted by the Space Telescope Science Institute Interim Director, Nancy Levenson, to provide advice and recommendations on adopting a formulaic approach to allocate funding to JWST science programs. The Working Group will report to the JSTUC and through them to the STScI Director and the JWST Senior Project Scientist.
The Working Group is charged with:
- Identifying the key principles that should underlie JWST grant funding allocations for the US community
- Codifying the advantages and disadvantages of an FRC-style review and of a formulaic budget-allocation process
- Identifying impacts to equity of the current process, and of a formulaic approach, across community demographics, including career stage, type of institution, and DEIA categories
- Determining what factors could be included within a formulaic approach, including the possibility of an appeal
- Developing specific examples of formulae
- Identifying improvements that could be made to the current FRC process, if the committee recommends keeping it
- Providing a consensus recommendation on the preferred grant-allocation process
The Working Group will have access to the results of the JWST Cycle 2 and Cycle 3 FRC budget reviews and appropriate support from STScI staff. Any recommendations must be consistent with federal law on grant funding.
The Working Group comprises 8-10 members of the astronomical community selected by the STScI in consultation with the GSFC JWST Project Science team and the JSTUC. The Chair of the Working Group will organize the meetings of the Working Group, and STScI will provide logistical (travel, meeting, telecon, etc.) support as needed.
The Working Group is chaired by Ata Sarajedini (Florida Atlantic University).
Working Group members are: Rupali Chandar (U. Toledo), Philip Choi (Pomona College), Tuan Do (UCLA), Rose Finn (Siena College), Jamie Kennea (Penn State, Swift), Dale Kocevski (Colby College), Lauranne Lanz (The College of New Jersey), Daniel Milisavljevic (Purdue), Rodolfo Montez (Chandra), and Casey Papovich (Texas A&M)
The committee will present a preliminary report to the JSTUC at their Spring, 2024, meeting. The final report will be due by June 30, 2024, to enable proposed changes to be implemented in the JWST Cycle 4 Call for Proposals.
Katey Alatalo (STScI JWST Science Mission Office) and Susan Neff (GSFC JWST Project Science Team) will serve as the primary contacts for the Working Group. They will be ex officio members of the WG. STScI Grants Administration will also support the Working Group. STScI and GSFC may supply observers to the committee.
