Following technical feasibility checks and consideration of target RAs, requested instrument configurations, etc., PIs have been notified of the outcome of the proposal selection process. The top 7/17 proposals have been accepted (see here for the list of programs). PIs received their overall grade and all the (anonymous) individual reviews, which we hope will be useful to them in writing future proposals. They have also been requested to fill in a feedback survey to let us know, for instance, how helpful the written comments are and how fair they perceive the review process to be.
Observations will begin on March 9. Although FT observations can be scheduled on non-FT nights if there is a gap in the regular queue, the FT team will be fiercely protective of the scheduled FT nights, and will keep in close contact with the queue coordinators regarding the scheduling of the FT programs. Time and weather will tell whether we have been overoptimistic or under-ambitious in accepting just under 20 hrs of FT observations for the first cycle; a progress update will be made here after the March 9-11 observing block.
In the meantime, we continue to make improvements to the web pages (e.g. the new Advice to Reviewers page) and the behind-the-scenes support of the program. We are certainly curious to see how the next cycle's proposals and review process will compare to the first month’s, which we perceive to have been very successful so far. Next deadline: February 28!