EISCAT Peer-review Program
Every year, EISCAT Scientific Association invites applications for observing time on the EISCAT facilities with two evaluation deadlines:
- 1st of May
- 1st of November
In frame of the program EISCAT provides up to a total of 200 h of experiment time to be used throughout the given year.
The call for applications is open to all individual scientists, research groups, and consortia throughout the world on an equal, competitive basis based on a peer-review process. It is available for the use of any of the current EISCAT facilities.
Successful applicants will be awarded time on the facilities based on the scientific merit of their applications. Assistance with observing programs and data analysis will be provided. Please, if you are unfamiliar with EISCAT, contact us via the email address given below, and we will be happy to assist you, by advising you on the technical aspects of your proposal.
We welcome applications both by young and established researchers.
Application process
Applications can be submitted throughout the year but they will be evaluated only two times. Those submitted by 1st of May will be evaluated in May. The applicants will be informed well before 10 June, to allow possible experiment scheduling in July as the awarded time will be requested to be initially scheduled between July and December of the given year.
Applications submitted later until 1st of November will be evaluated by the end of November. In this case the applicants will be informed well before 10 December as the awarded time will be requested to be initially scheduled between January and June of the following year.
Please, note that in general EISCAT experiments for a given month are scheduled latest by the 10th of the preceding month. See (Insert link } Experiment Requests{_) for more information on how to schedule radar time after it has been granted.
Applications for EISCAT PP time should be sent to Dr. Maria Mihalikova, either by submitting through the form on this website (preferred option) or directly by e-mail to arrive no later than at 24:00 UTC on the submission deadline date (1 May or 1 Nov). Confirmation of reception will be sent to the contact e-mail address provided in the application.
Application contents
Applications should consist of two parts:
- A) a free-form 2-4 page science description to concentrate on the scientific value of the proposed work,
- B) a standard 5 page form to define experiment.
Please, refer to and use the following files for your application:
Peer-review process
Applications will be reviewed by the EISCAT-established Review Panel consisting of the EISCAT Scientific Advisory Committee and the EISCAT Staff Scientists. The panel will enlist the help of external referees where necessary. Proposals will be awarded time based on their scientific merit and novelty.
Evaluation criteria used by the Review Panel
The overall scientific merit and potential of the proposal. Successful applications are expected to bring in significant new results and advance in the traditional ISR research areas, or novel science areas as described below.
The scientific novelty of the proposal, including application of the EISCAT facilities in new areas, where ISR technique and/or other radio methods used at EISCAT would bring significant advance in the respective science field and/or novel use of the available techniques.
The capability of the applicant(s) to fulfill the proposed research according to their plan, including whether the total duration proposed for the project is well-defined, EISCAT is well-suited for the proposed research and whether the plan for execution of the observational program is complete.
The broader impact the proposal will have in increasing the diversity of the EISCAT research community, and in expanding the research capabilities of the EISCAT facilities.
In case of two applications having similar merits in evaluation, preference will be given either to those applicants who are new to the EISCAT facilities, in order to enlarge the EISCAT user community and further more open access to the facilities, or to the applicant showing stronger educational impact in their proposal.
Applicants will be formally informed of the outcome of the review process by e-mail to the contact address provided in the application. This letter will state whether the application has been successful, and the time which has been awarded. One should note that this might not be the full amount of time originally requested. This is often the case for new experiments, especially if they propose to employ any of the EISCAT facilities in a novel manner. Any restrictions which the Panel may have placed on the use of the time will also be stated, as will any comments or queries which they might have expressed. If the full amount of time requested has not been granted, then an explanation will always be given. Feedback to applicants will also be given whenever an application is unsuccessful.
Observer’s reporting requirement
In order to improve our facilities and services, we request observers who have completed an observing session to provide us with feedback about their experience. We also require the observers to report their final results, as conference presentations, published papers and thesis works, which are based on the observations performed. A short summary (max 1 page) of the experiment and foreseen results (even if they are negative) should be submitted within 4 weeks after the observations, and a complementing short (max 2 pages) final report within 12 months after the observations, including list of possibly published, submitted and foreseen publications, as well as the educational and/or science programmatic outcomes. Reporting is essential if you intend to submit future EISCAT PP time applications.