The Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) invites scientists to participate in the call for proposals of observing time at the three national radio telescopes:

- the 32-m Medicina Grueff Radio Telescope
- the 32-m Noto antenna 
- the 64-m Sardinia Radio Telescope

Two observing semesters are scheduled every year: 1st January to 30th June, 1st July to 31st December.
Deadlines fall in early October and early April, respectively.

Below we report the time INAF plans to award for the next semester 2025B:

•  Medicina: 1500 hours (1)
•  Noto: 0 hours (2)
  
•  SRT: 1000 hours (3)
  

These amounts might be subject to modification, due to maintenance needs and to the variability of the commitments resulting from international agreements.

(1) MEDICINA POST-UPGRADE COMMISSIONING
After the installation of the active surface on its primary mirror and of new devices, the availability of the Medicina dish for semester 2025B will be affected by commissioning needs, likely requiring dedicated time slots in early summer and late autumn. For this reason, the amount of awarded hours is reduced to 1500.  

(2) NOTO NOT AVAILABLE
Due to major maintenance and upgrades, the Noto dish will not be available for semester 2025B.

(3) SRT IN SHARED-RISK MODE
SRT is in a high frequency upgrade phase. In the 2025B semester it is offered in "shared-risk" mode and with a limited number of receivers.
During the semester, SRT is expected to stop operations. In case, the projects that will not be scheduled will be resumed after the stop.

Please note -  Observations in Medicina cam be performed remotely. Concerning SRT, remote observations are limited and need observers at the telescope provided by the projects. For further information about how to implement remote observations please contact the SRT user support; Italian VLBI and Eating VLBI projects require observers to carry out the observations of the project.
Details will be provided in due time by the user support.

Acknowledgements - Papers including data/results obtained with the Italian radio telescopes must contain the appropriate acknowledgements, i.e.:
For the Sardinia Radio Telescope: "The Sardinia Radio Telescope is funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (RAS) and is operated as National Facility by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF)."

For Medicina and/or Noto: "The Medicina[Noto] radio telescope is funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) and is operated as National Facility by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF)."

Time Allocation Committee

Proposals will be reviewed and ranked on the basis of their scientific merit by a Time Allocation Committee (TAC) of experts.

How to apply

Here is a list of useful indications and resources for those wanting to apply for observing time:

• Consult the announcement page - taking note of the proposal deadlines - and carefully read the general guidelines
  

• Refer to the offered programs to decide which type best suits the project you have in mind
  

• Visit the observational status summary of the three radio telescopes to determine the technical feasibility of your program, which instruments are available or appropriate, and estimate how much time is required to complete the observations
  

• Download and fill out the proposal form. In particular, in addition to the scientific justification, the proposal must include a clear description of the requested technical details required to achieve the scientific goal: e.g. choice of band receiver(s), back-ends, scheduling constraints (if any), RFI issues, flux calibration strategy, required flux sensitivity as well as the on-source integration time and total observing time including overhead
  

• Submit the pdf file of the proposal form using the online submission interface
  

For inquiries and updates please contact us by writing to radioproposal at inaf.it

General guidelines

The three antennas shall be seen as a single coordinated facility so that users can submit a single proposal to request time at one or more than one telescope.
Please consult the following general guidelines:

1. Observing with our telescopes
2. Which antenna to use?
3. Italian VLBI
   
4. Recovery of lost observing time
5. MoU and LoIs policy
6. EATING VLBI
   
7. Proprietary time
8. Disclosure of proposal information
   

Offered programs

The offered observing programs types are:

1. Guest projects
2. Large projects
3. Long (multi-term) projects
4. NAPA proposals
5. ToO projects

All of these programs are TAC-evaluated and must be submitted using the official proposal form. Except for ToOs, which can be submitted at any time, all other proposals must be submitted at the regular deadlines. ToO evaluation and observations will be carried out quickly if the requested telescope is available.

Users can exceptionally apply for DDT (Director Discretionary Time) outside the regular calls. This is time at the disposal of the Directors of the institute(s) hosting the telescope(s).

INAF may also promote Legacy programs. These are very large projects that address broad scientific goals that are of interest to the scientific community at large.

Observational Status Summary

We strongly recommend the observers read the detailed information about the observational status of the three radio telescopes provided via the following page, which also links to useful tools (Exposure Time Calculator, source visibility tool, etc.):

• Detailed information and tools for the observers

Here is a summary of the available receivers and back-ends:

• Summary of the offered devices
  

Copyright INAF 2020