[ASA] Call for Letters of Intent: Las Cumbres Observatory Key Projects, 2026B

[Christopher Onken]

Australian astronomers are eligible to submit Key Project proposals in the upcoming call from Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), for observations beginning in the 2026B semester. Interested parties must submit a Letter of Intent by 26 February 2026.

Further details can be found below. Take note of LCO's announcement that the NRES instruments will cease operation on the 1m telescope network after 2026A.

Regards,
Chris

Dr. Christopher A. Onken
ANU-LCO Liaison



2026 LCO Key Project Letters of Intent

LCO is preparing to solicit new Key Projects. To ensure that the review process has the necessary expertise, and that proposed Key Projects can potentially be supported, LCO requires letters of intent (LoI). LoIs should be submitted as an email to keyproject at lco.global by February 26, 2026. Key Project proposals may request time for 2 – 6 semesters, starting with 2026B.

Required information

  1.  Name and institutional affiliation of Principal Investor or Co-PIs

  2.  Name and institutional affiliation of co-investigators

  3.  Proposal Title

  4.  General subject area: e.g., supernovae, exoplanets, asteroids

  5.  One-page abstract that provides the specific science interests .

Eligibility: Investigators from institutions that have guaranteed time as well as scientists at IPAC and UC Santa Barbara are eligible as PIs. The majority of Key Projects will be awarded to this group (the LCO Science Collaboration). LCO plans to accept one “open access” Key Project where the PI has an institutional affiliation outside of the LCO Science Collaboration.

Definition of Key Projects: Key Projects are large projects that utilize LCO’s unique capabilities and have substantial scientific impact on questions of interest to the LCO Science Collaboration. They require specific and well-defined scientific goals, a large number of hours (at least 500), and typically require observations over multiple semesters. Key Projects often provide observational or derived datasets that are of interest to other researchers, in part because they can gather observations of a particular class of object in a coherent and uniform way. The nominal proprietary period for Key Projects data is one year. Key Projects are carried out by organized teams with well thought out management of effort and resources. It is expected that the resources to accomplish those goals are available, or there is a plan for acquiring the needed resources. The current Key Projects are described here.

Invitation to Submit a Proposal: The current LCO science collaboration Key Projects may submit follow-on proposals. It is highly unlikely that LCO will select a proposal from a PI outside of the collaboration that proposes a very similar program. The Director will review the LoIs and issue invitations to submit full proposals or not by March 3. We will not ask PIs to waste effort on proposals that have very little chance of being accepted.

Available Instrumentation

2-meter telescopes: MuSCAT imaging & FLOYDS spectroscopy; 1-meter telescopes: Sinistro imaging; 0.4m: QHY600 imaging. LCO will stop operating the NRES Instruments at the end of semester 2026A. No NRES observations should be proposed. LCO will begin replacing the 1m Sinistro imagers in mid-2026 with Princeton Instruments SOPHIA deep depletion CCD cameras. We expect the replacement of all 12 Sinistro cameras to be complete by mid-2027.

Email Questions to keyproject at lco.global

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