National Aeronautics and Space Administration           25 January 2008
Washington, DC  20546-0001

Dear XMM-Newton AO-7 Guest Observer:

ESA has completed the scientific and technical evaluation (Stage 1) of
proposals received in response to the XMM-Newton AO-7 Call for Proposals, 
and has notified PIs of their proposal accepted/rejected status by e-mail. 
A list of accepted targets has been made available on the WWW at:
   
    http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/external/xmm_news/ao7_results/index.php    
    or (sorted by ObsID)
    http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/ao7/ao7_otac_by_id.txt.gz
    or (sorted by RA)
    http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/ao7/ao7_otac_by_radec.txt.gz

I am pleased to invite the submission of budget proposals for support of 
the selected AO-7 investigations.  The budget process is open to Guest 
Observers associated with US institutions (and who expect to remain so 
during the grant period), and includes both US PIs and US Co-Is on 
foreign-PI proposals.  

We anticipate that a total of ~$5.7 M will be available for the support
of US investigations during AO-7, with the expectation that ~$4.9 M of
the above funds will be allocated to the roughly 80 A or B proposals
that have either US PIs, or US Co-Is on foreign PI proposals.  (For
US Co-Is on foreign PI proposals the involvement of the US Co-I must
be significant, and critical to the success of that investigation.)  
The balance of the available funding (~$0.8 M) will be allocated to
support C-target, ToO, and joint Chandra/XMM (allocated by Chandra TACs)
proposals with completed observations.  Note that only one budget per
accepted observing proposal will be allowed, i.e., US PIs must submit
a budget including the required support for all of the funded Co-Is,
and the US Co-Is on a foreign-PI proposal must designate a Lead Co-I
and submit a budget under the lead Co-I's name and institution.  NASA 
no longer directly funds subgrants going to secondary institutions.  
Subgrants to fund Co-Is at separate institutions must go through the 
Budget PI's institution.

To guide the proposer in formulating a realistic funding request,
factors such as the scope and complexity of the investigation should be 
taken into account, including any modifications to the original science 
proposal (e.g., deletion of targets, reduction in observing time) that
were recommended by the review panel.  (C-target proposals will be 
funded at levels below that of A and B target proposals.)  For a program 
with A or B targets combined with C targets, the funding level will be
determined by the A and/or B targets alone.  Additional factors that
will be considered include the presence of other proposals for which 
a given PI or Co-I is requesting funding under this solicitation, and 
other sources of support relevant to this request. The review process 
will consider the reasonableness of the budget in terms of the required 
labor to pursue the investigation and the reasonableness of supporting 
requests (e.g., travel, computer hardware, and publication expenses).  
A peer-review panel convened by NASA will have the responsibility for 
assessing the realism and reasonableness of the budget proposals and 
making recommendations concerning the appropriate funding level.  The 
final funding decision will be made by the NASA selecting official.

For AO-7 "fair-share" estimates will again be provided.  US PIs should 
receive an e-mail in the next week providing the fair-share estimate for 
their proposal.  US Co-Is of Foreign PI proposals should designate the 
budget PI (Lead Co-I) who then should contact Steve Snowden 
(Steven.L.Snowden@nasa.gov) at the XMM-Newton GOF for their estimate.

Budgets for A/B target and ToO proposals should be submitted at this 
time.  Because it is unlikely that more than a few C targets will be 
observed, programs with only C targets will be considered for funding 
only after the observations take place.  Budgets for C proposals, as 
well as requests for fair-share estimates, should be submitted at that 
time.  However, US GOs of any AO-6 C target proposals that have had 
observations scheduled can and should propose at this time.

Funding for a given proposal will be initiated after the first target
of that proposal has appeared in the short-term timeline.  If
special needs exist and can be justified, earlier funding will be 
considered.

In preparing a budget submission, the proposer must follow the
guidelines provided under "PROPOSALS & TOOLS" at the NASA XMM-Newton 
Guest Observer Facility web site located at:

http://xmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/xmmgof.html

At this site you will find links to a description of the XMM-Newton GO 
program, information regarding budget proposal submission, evaluation, 
selection, and implementation, and instructions for electronic Remote 
Proposal Submission (RPS).  The PI (or the Lead Co-I of a foreign-PI 
proposal), is responsible for submitting a single package containing 
the budget request for a given proposal.

Please submit the signed original and ten (10) hard copies of the
completed budget proposal no later than 4:30 pm EST on 16 March 2007 
to the following address.  An electronic submission of certain forms 
is due by that date and time as well.

XMM-Newton Guest Observer Program
Code 662
Building 2, Room 250
Goddard Space Flight Center
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001

We expect to complete the Budget Review in 2008 May, with PI/Lead Co-I 
notification of the approved funding levels in June.  Revised budgets, 
if necessary, will be due in July.  For any questions concerning the 
budget proposal or process, please contact the NASA/GSFC XMM-Newton GOF 
at:

xmmhelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov

In addition, if the PI or Lead Co-I should change institution, please
notify the GOF by e-mail at the same address.

Sincerely,

Dr. Wilton T. Sanders
US XMM-Newton Program Scientist