Large Programs at CFHT

What is a Large Program?

A Large Program must request at least 200 hours of observing time on MegaCam, WIRCam or ESPaDOnS, which can be out on one or more instruments (like a combined visible and infrared imaging program using MegaCam and WIRCam). The observing time can be spread evenly over all semesters in the Large Program period, or be requested for fewer (specified) semesters. The more spread the time allocation, the likely more robust the program is to weather loss.

Which criteria will be used in the selection process?

When full proposals are reviewed, the selection committee will consider the scientific merit of the program and the feasibility of the observations at CFHT. The capability of the team to handle the data reduction process to achieve the scientific goals will be essential to the selection of a proposed LP. The acquisition of needed calibration data should be an integral part of the original LP allocation, as getting additional awards for this kind of data collection has been shown to be difficult historically.

Other factors will be taken into account in the selection process and need to be addressed in the proposal: the risks associated with incomplete data collection, potentially linked to overloading an instrument or requesting too large a fraction of observing conditions, the willingness of the LP team to provide immediate access to the CFHT community, the interest of the data beyond the main scientific goals of the LP, the potential legacy value of the data acquired, and the inter-Agency nature of the LP team.

Proposing teams should seek the advice of CFHT on the evaluation of risk.

Proposal submissions

Proposals should be submitted before the deadline(!) in electronic form (pdf file) by email addressed to
director "at" cfht.hawaii.edu

The format of the proposals will be as following:

  • Cover Page - 1 page (see form here - pdf)
  • Scientific Justification - 5 pages + 2 pages of figures and references
  • Technical Justification - 3 pages
  • Observing Strategy - in the form of a standard table (see sample here - pdf)
  • Data Management plan - including real-time analysis requirements, a data-analysis plan and a description of available resources - 1 page

    • Proprietary Periods

    - Participating community access:

  • The default is that all members of a participating community to a LP (i.e. allocating observing time to the LP) will have immediate access to the data through the CADC.
  • The PI may propose to retain the usual one year proprietary period for participating community access (or any other period not to exceed one year from the time the last data is acquired, as is the case for any PI program).

    • - World Access:

  • The default is the standard one year proprietary period after the end of each semester for the duration of the LP.
  • The PI may request, with justification, that world-access be denied for an extended period not to exceed one year after the last data in the LP is acquired.


    • Multi-Agency Proposals:

    If you intend to submit a joint proposal between two or more Agencies or partner communities, you are required to distribute the total amount of hours requested among the participants. This distribution should be made according to the relative scientific contribution from each community in your collaborative team. In other words, it is up to you as PI to assess this distribution. You will find on the summary form a section "Hours per agency" where this distribution has to be made. The National TACs of any named community will be given that proposal and asked to comment on scientific value and confirm their willingness to contribute time to the Large Program agency.