Users Group: News
Update on Plans for Future Meetings of the JLab Program Advisory Committee - a message from Larry Cardman
After much discussion (internally, with the PAC chair, and with the UGBOD) we have decided to change the PAC meeting sequence to once per year for the period between now and about 3 years before the start of 12 GeV physics. Further, to avoid conflict with the preparations for CD-3 this summer (a key event, which will signal the formal start of the construction project), we will not hold a PAC meeting this summer. Rather, the next 12 GeV PAC will be held in January 2009 (with the exact week to be announced shortly). The broad plan for the PAC and the evolution of the 12 GeV program is outlined in the notes below. It follows roughly the model used at the startup of CEBAF many years ago.
The formal call for proposals for the January PAC will go out in early October and proposals will be made in late November or early December (depending on the precise dates of the PAC meeting). This follows the traditional time-line for the Winter PAC. This PAC will be the first for 12 GeV experiments that will not be limited to the use of the base equipment only. We are providing you with this early notice, both to clarify our plans and to be sure the user community is fully informed about the procedures that will be followed for future 12 GeV PACs.
We had planned to discuss our plans for running between now and the end of the "6 GeV era" with the PAC this summer. Rather than delay that review, we are asking the PAC (under Roy Holt's leadership) to review the draft plan as soon as it is available (we hope in about a month) by a combination of email/written comments and a phone conference. This will avoid the need for the PAC to travel to Newport News for a relatively short meeting. The plan will be released as quickly as possible, and, in any event, prior to the summer User's Group Meeting. Of course the reality of that plan will depend critically on the operations funding the lab receives over the next few years.
If you have questions about our plans for 12 GeV PACs, please don't hesitate to contact me or the relevant Hall Leader for further details.
Summary of PACs in the Period between now and the start of 12 GeV Physics:
- The PAC will become an annual (rather than semi-annual) event between now and ~3 years before first beam from the Upgrade.
- For the near term, it will continue to evaluate proposals as "appropriate for the first five years of running" but not assign a scientific rating.
- The first of these meetings will be January of 2009, and subsequent annual PACs will also be in January.
- We will "skip" the Summer 2008 PAC meeting. The reasons for this include a desire to minimize extra work in the runup to the CD-3 review and a desire to provide collaborations interested in major new experiments with more lead time to prepare detailed proposals.
- We will develop that running plan for the remainder of the 6 GeV program as quickly as possible, and then share it with the PAC by email for their comments so we do not have to wait until next January to get their comments on the plan. We will also "publish" the plan, and share it with the User Community no later than at this summer's User Meeting.
- Starting with the January 2009 PAC we will accept any and all proposals without regard to commitments to the base equipment and allow proposals that would require significant new equipment with the understanding that funds for it will have to be found outside the project. We will also accept proposals using lower energy beams, with the understanding that they must compete scientifically with all proposals possible with the Upgrade.
- About 3 years before first beam we will have a "rate the already accepted proposals" PAC. Details TBD. This may take more than one PAC meeting, depending on the number of proposals on the books at that time and depending on whether we ask for "updates" and public presentations or simply have the PAC do the relative rating based on the written proposals and previous PAC comments. At this point we'll switch back to a semi-annual PAC.
- About 2 years before the start of physics in each hall, we will ask the hall collaboration to present the PAC with a "first year of physics" plan, which will fold the technical requirements for full commissioning and characterization of the instruments in the hall with a desire to do the best physics possible as quickly as possible. Running in the hall after that first year will be done as it is now, with the scientific priority and technical readiness the key drivers.