The Opticon RadioNet Pilot Trans-National Access programme will continue and hopefully lead to even greater integration and coordination of the participating telescopes. At present the proposals for time at all the optical telescopes in the network are being reviewed together by a single international Time Allocation Committee (TAC) to ensure network-wide competition and uniform review criteria.
The optical network comprises 14 distinct telescopes in a size range from 0.6 to 10 metres. These offer a mixture of classically scheduled PI projects, some queue scheduled observing where this is a normal operational mode of the telescope in question and a number of robotic telescopes well suited to both monitoring and quick reaction alert type observations.
The process is open to proposals from any nation not just EU countries associated with Horizon2020 (which includes Norway and the UK). However proposals led by non-EU principle investigators are limited to 20% of the total funding available. The principle criteria of eligibility is that the proposal team have no automatic access to the facilities requested via a national mechanism. Proposals are ranked on scientific merit but special consideration is given to proposers who have no suitable national facilities which they can use.
There are two calls for proposals each year. The calls generally open at the start of February and August.
The Optical Transnational Access Lead is:
Dan Dicken (daniel.dicken@stfc.ac.uk)
Current Call
Sorry, there is no current call open.
Past Calls
2023B Optical Telescope Call - CTAC Report [PDF/3.2 MB]
2023A Optical Telescope Call - CTAC Report [PDF/4 MB]
2022B Optical Telescope Call - CTAC Report [PDF/1.5 MB]
2022A Optical Telescope Call - CTAC Report [PDF/64 KB]
Alternative Optical TNA Opportunities
Note that in addition to other access mechanisms offered with the ORP and described here https://www.orp-h2020.eu/apply-transnational-access there is an independent access programme operated by the Europlanet Network which offers a different telescope suite for for solar system and exoplanet science projects. More information can be found on the Europlanet Call Page.