In preparation for operations and early science, Rubin Observatory would like to consider any outstanding resources needed by those within the Rubin Community to meet their goals.
Rubin is issuing a rolling call for existing and prospective Recipient groups to identify opportunities for further in-kind contributions that are targeted to meet a specific need that they have.
We therefore encourage Rubin Recipient groups to submit their “resource needs” through the simple web form available at Resource Needs. The needs can span any type of contribution listed in the in-kind handbook for contributions.
The proposed resource needs will be collated by the IPC team and posted on a Rubin web page (URL TBA). These can cover the full range of in-kind contributions defined in the In-kind handbook e.g. developer time needed on a particular software infrastructure project, follow-up time on a particular class of telescope, a particular needed auxiliary dataset, specific types of computing resource, and so on. We encourage Recipients to think broadly about what they really need. A review by Rubin will be carried out to check for suitability as an in-kind contribution including whether the need is already supported by federally funded Rubin Observatory activities or not.
Once these opportunities have been posted, teams in the US, Chile, or in one of the international in-kind programs, who are interested in responding with an in-kind contribution to meet one of the advertised needs, can submit their ideas and start discussions with the Recipient group. The Recipient group will decide whose offer they would like to accept and inform Rubin via the In-kind office that their need is provisionally covered (they can also opt to accept offers from multiple groups). After review by Rubin, accepted contributions will be registered in the Rubin in-kind program, and tracked accordingly.
In the case where a prospective in-kind contribution team is still seeking funding to support their proposed contribution, the Recipient can notify Rubin of their conditional acceptance, and Rubin will follow the status of the funding with the prospective contribution team. New contributions will be registered in the first or second quarter of 2024, by which time their funding status should have been clarified.
If an international in-kind team’s offer is accepted by the recipient, the proponents should complete a short form to describe the nature of the contribution and the resource committed summarising their discussions with the recipient group. The Rubin DIrector’s Office will determine the in-kind value of the work and verify compliance with the guidance in the Handbook for In-kind Contributions. For international contributions this will be discussed with the x . The value of a contribution will be communicated to the international team.
See the figure below for an illustration of the above workflow.
To date, Rubin’s priority has been to successfully implement the approved international in-kind program with DRAs, and so we anticipate accepting only a small number of new contributions. Bids from new international programs will NOT be considered in this year’s call, but bids to expand the existing programs will be allowed. (Program expansions will need to follow the Rubin Data Policy, which notes that an international program can potentially include scientists from more than one country. A change to a program that would bring in a new country would need agency approval - enquiries about this should be sent directly to Bob Blum and Phil Marshall.)
The Resource Needs form will remain open throughout the year as an ongoing “rolling call” to Recipients to notify the community of their needs. Outstanding needs will be advertised periodically here on community.lsst.org and at the regular in-kind assemblies.
Queries about the Resource Needs process or any posted need should be directed to the Rubin In-kind Program Coordination Team at jikh@lsst.org