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Message
from CASCA President G. Harris:
I am pleased to inform you that the Long
Range Plan Mid-Course Review
Panel has been established and is beginning its work. The panel
members
are named below. These members of our community are now embarked on an
important process and they will need your support and involvement as they
carry out their mandate. From time to time, and beginning very soon, you
will be hearing from the panel chair, Ernie Seaquist,
with information on
how the process is proceeding and how you can participate. This is an
important stage in ensuring a healthy future for astronomy in
building on what we have achieved in more than a century of successes.
We have already received federal funding for a very good start on achieving
many of the goals of the LRP and now it is important that we continue to
have a well formed and unified approach that ensures success for the
second five years of the LRP. The mandate for the review process can
be found below.
LRP Mid-Course Review Panel:
Ernie Seaquist (Chair)
Hugh Couchman
Vicky Kaspi
George Mitchell
Harvey Richer
Gretchen Harris (Ex-Officio as CASCA President)
External Consultant:
Ralph Pudritz (Chair of LRP Panel)
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Mandate
of the Long Range Plan Mid-Course Review Panel
It is four years since the completion of the report of the NRC-NSERC Long
Range Planning Panel on the future of Canadian astronomy (LRP). Since
that
time, and with strong federal Government support, CSA and NRC have made
important commitments to begin achieving several LRP primary goals. These
include Canadian involvement in the James Webb Space Telescope and meeting
the conditions of the NAPRA agreement enabling Canadian partnership in
But the LRP is, at minimum, a ten-year plan while the incremental funds are
for a maximum of five years. Not all LRP recommendations are funded and,
in
some cases, budgeted monies run out in March, 2005, e.g., for studies
leading to Canadian partnership in projects such as the Square Kilometer
Array and a Very Large Optical Telescope, which were strongly recommended in
the LRP. Moreover, new factors such as the availability of CFI funds for
national and international projects and the establishment of the Association
of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA) are changing the
landscape for Canadian Astronomy. NSERC has recognized the increasing
involvement of Canadian astronomy in large international facilities and has
suggested that our community consider an envelope funding scheme such as
that used by the subatomic physics community. It is clearly time to
review
the LRP.
As a mid-course review, this will not be as extensive or elaborate a process
as the original LRP, but it requires the same integrity, commitment to
openness and involvement of the Canadian astronomers. The report will
build
on the original LRP and will be the tool by
which the community will seek
funding for the next phases of the LRP. The purpose of the review then is
to
assess the progress achieved in the first five years of the plan and to make
recommendations on what steps need to be taken to ensure that the goals of
the plan are achieved.
The LRP Mid-Course Review Panel, in consultation with the Canadian
astronomical community, CSA, NRC, NSERC, ACURA and relevant industries is
requested to review progress toward the LRP goals, identify any serious
implementation gaps that have emerged, and recommend strategies for the next
five years. The Panel should consider areas in which little progress has
been made, such as establishment of instrument labs in universities, and how
to sustain the operations of the international facilities in which
is, or will be, involved. The scope of the review should
incorporate all
initiatives outlined in the LRP, but should not include a major revision
or expansion of the plan that is inconsistent with the original goals. In
conducting the review, the Panel must openly involve the community through
procedures which make possible input from all members of CASCA.
The Panel should make a direct report available to CASCA members no
later than May 31, 2004 and there will be an opportunity for discussion of
that report during the CASCA Annual General Meeting (June 13-16). The
final
version of the report should be completed by
Board of Directors
Canadian Astronomical Society
DATE:
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The
Review of the Long Range Plan for Astronomy Gets Underway
The purpose of this article is first to announce that the committee to
review the Long Range Plan (LRP) has begun its task, second, to remind
the community of the background for the establishment of the
committee, and third,to indicate how the committee
proposes to
operate. We would also like to have your early feedback on the
proposed procedures.
Our first challenge as a committee is to ensure that the committee's
operational procedures are as open as possible while accommodating the
more limited scope and time frame of its mandate compared with the
that of the original LRP. After some deliberation, we have decided on
the following operating procedure:
(1) Open a discussion forum on the CASCA website as soon as possible.
(2) Ask all PI's for LRP initiatives to prepare a report outlining
(a) progress since the year 2000,
(b) how LRP resources were distributed since 2000, and
(c) the plan and resource requirements for the second five
years
of the LRP.
The PI reports are due by April 9, and would be placed on the CASCA
website as soon as they are received.
(3) Hold a meeting of the panel with the PI's, some of the CASCA
committee chairs, and representatives from the funding
agencies
(NRC, NSERC, CSA) and ACURA. The committee will hear
presentations
by the PI's based on the reports on the CASCA website. Part of
the
time will be used to discuss a number of strategic issues
with the
agencies. These would include the impact on the LRP of
funding
from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, already
supporting some
LRP initiatives. This meeting is scheduled to be held at HIA
in
open to all HIA astronomers. We also have a plan to web-cast
this
meeting for the benefit of the rest of the community. The
community will be alerted by e-mail exploder to this
opportunity
to observe the proceedings. We also have a plan to provide
for
"live" e-mail feedback, which will be monitored at
the meeting, so
issues from the community can be addressed on-line.
(4) Prepare a preliminary report of the committee and make it
available on the CASCA website by
discussion. The report will also be presented to the
membership
and discussed at the CASCA Annual General Meeting (AGM) in
mid-June.
(5) Prepare a final report over the summer, after reviewing all
comments and suggestions by the community, to be submitted
to
CASCA Board by the required deadline of
If anyone has concerns, advice, suggestions either now or at any time,
please contact me at seaquist@astro.utoronto.ca.
Ernie Seaquist
Committee Chair