From: NEWS FROM SCIENCE COMMITTEE April 2002


Call for Statements of Interest

9. The Committee agreed that a Call for Statements of Interest in major new
projects (i.e. where the capital cost, including manpower, to be sought from
PPARC is  1M or more) should be issued to the community.  It is planned to
hold a two-day meeting on 12 and 13 September this year, at which proposers
will be invited to give short presentations on their SoIs to an open
meeting, followed by the Science Committee's consideration and assessment at
this meeting, and in October.  The Call for SoIs is attached to this
Newsletter. The deadline for receipt of SoIs is 1 July 2002.


INVITATION TO SUBMIT STATEMENTS OF INTEREST IN NEW PROJECTS

1. In order to inform itself of the range and size of future proposals
likely to be submitted to PPARC the Science Committee intends to review each
year Statements of Interest (SoI) in major new projects (ie where the
capital cost, including manpower, to be sought from PPARC is  1M or more)
from the community.  The review will involve short (10 minute) presentations
on each SoI in open session, followed by an evaluation by the Science
Committee in closed session. Following the Science Committee's evaluation,
proposers will be given feedback, and where appropriate will be encouraged
to develop their proposals further and to submit them to the Projects
Peer-Review Panel for a full assessment.

2. Individuals, groups and collaborations working in PPARC's area of
interest are now invited to submit SoIs for future projects, for
consideration by the Science Committee in September 2002.  Proposers who
have submitted SoIs within the last twelve months, which they would like to
be included in the present exercise, should contact the Office, but will not
normally need to produce another SoI.  Projects already funded and under
construction, or in the peer-review process, and requests for post-launch
support for space missions already funded, should not be included in this
exercise.

3. Statements of Interest may propose: participation in new experiments or
missions; the development of new instruments, detectors or accelerator
technologies; upgrades to existing detectors; the purchase of new, or
upgrades to existing, major high performance computing facilities; or new
initiatives in the field of e-science, modelling and data management.  They
should in general be limited to two pages, and should include the following
information:

a. a brief description of the project, its scientific goals, and the context
in which it is proposed, including other related national or international
current or planned projects;

b. details of the collaboration proposing the project, showing, in the case
of projects involving international collaborators, where the UK group(s) are
leading the project, UK strengths and the extent to which the UK
contribution is essential to the success of the project.  Possible
opportunities for UK industry, and the role of the international partners
should also be described;

c. the timescale of the project, including the international selection
process where appropriate, date when a firm funding commitment by PPARC is
required, duration of the project;

d. an estimate of the PPARC resources likely to be needed for the capital
construction phase, and where possible, for the exploitation phase: staff
effort (including the cost of RAL staff), equipment, travel. In addition to
an estimate of the total cost, an approximate spend profile would be
helpful.  An indication should be given of  resources which may be available
in the proposing institutes, the relation to other projects depending on the
same resources, and the resources needed soon to establish the feasibility
of the project;

e. a statement showing what resources have already been provided for the
project (from whatever source), and for what purpose;

f. a description of any new technology that needs to be developed before the
project can be considered to be technically secure.

4. Statements of Interest should be submitted electronically, in WORD or
.pdf format, to Jon Reynolds, Science Committee Secretariat, PPARC
(Jon.Reynolds@PPARC.ac.uk) by 1 July 2002.  To give us an idea of how many
to expect, it would be very helpful, though not compulsory, if you could let
Jon know by 30 April if you intend to submit an SoI.