Continuing exploitation of UK investment in JCMT

我们建议英国继续在目前运营詹姆斯·克莱克·麦克斯韦望远镜(JCMT)的合作伙伴关系中发挥重要作用，为期3年，2018-2020年包括在内。在此之前，东亚天文台(EAO)在过去三年中非常成功地运行了JCMT，并在2015年初STFC移交该设施的所有权后，英国和加拿大做出了贡献。STFC要求的为期3年的每年25万GB的资金，加上该联盟中的大学提供的匹配资金，将使英国成为该基金约20%的合作伙伴。然而，这一贡献将使英国气象局能够利用JCMT提供的更大份额的观测时间和数据。这是因为EAO已将50%的观测时间分配给大型计划，条件是这些计划必须包括来自所有合作伙伴的科学家，即EAO的四个合作伙伴地区中国、韩国、日本和台湾以及英国和加拿大。其余50%的时间被分配给私人投资项目，由单一的TAC进行同行审查，大致按资金贡献比例进行审查。因此，英国只需支付20%的费用，就可以获得~60%的时间。这种明显慷慨的模式的原因是，EAO认识到，通过与英国和加拿大社区提供的长期专业知识合作，他们的社区将受益。我们还申请了少量的旅行资金，以允许英国天文学家花时间与夏威夷的EAO工作人员合作，并参加JCMT的重要会议。

We propose that the UK continues to play a significant role in the partnership that is now operating the James Clerk Maxwell telescope (JCMT) for the 3 year period 2018-2020 inclusive. This follows on from the very successful operation of JCMT over the past 3 years by the East Asian Observatory (EAO), along with contributions from the UK and Canada after STFC handed over ownership of the facility in early 2015. The requested funding from STFC of £250k per year for 3 years, along with the matched funding from the Universities in this consortium, will allow the UK to become a roughly 20% partner in the facility. This contribution however will allow the UK comunity to leverage a far higher share of observing time and data from JCMT. This is becasue EAO have allocated 50% of observing time to large programmes, with a condition that these programmes must be inclusive of scientists from all the partners, namely the four EAO partner regions of China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, as well as the UK and Canada. The remaining 50% of time is allocated to PI projects, peer reviewed by a single TAC, roughly in proportion to financical contribution. Therefore the UK gets access to ~60% of the time for only 20% of the cost. The reason for this apparently generous model is that EAO recognise that their communities will benefit by collaborating with teh long-standing expertise available in the UK and Canadian communities. We also request a small amount of travel funding to allow UK astronomers to spend time working with the EAO staff in Hawaii, and to attend essential JCMT meetings.