As many of you know, NSF is planning a Senior Review of its astronomy facilities later this year. The purpose is to assess our national ground-based astronomy program in the light of the continuing tight federal budget for research and the need to identify resources for the design and development of new facilities like LSST, GSMT and SKA.
NRAO has, of course, already been addressing the issues confronting us under the current tight budgets. The observatory staff and our senior managers have been very successful in instituting cost-cutting measures that allow us to preserve our existing radio facilities and continue the programs that are so essential to advances in astronomy, even as we move ahead actively building EVLA and ALMA.
In parallel, we have been working with the rest of the radio community to review the current and planned programs in the discipline via the Radio, Millimeter and Submillimeter Planning Group, chaired by Martha Haynes and supported by the AUI. A working draft of their report is posted at http://www.astro.cornell.edu/~haynes/rmspg/docs/draft050404.pdf
We, along with the other National Observatories, have recently received a letter from NSF outlining the material that will be requested in preparation for the review. We want to share this letter with you, and it is available at http://www.nrao.edu/nsfapr07_2005.pdf. The letter is explicit in asking NRAO to consult with the community as we assess our programs and define our priorities. We will certainly ask for your help as we investigate how best to promote and continue to support astronomy research.
Fred Lo, Director
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Ethan J. Schreier, President
Associated Universities, Incorporated
13 April 2005