SELECTING AND SCHEDULING OBSERVATIONS AT THE IRAM OBSERVATORIES

Abstract

After a brief characterization of the IRAM Observatories on Pico Veleta in Spain, and the Plateau de Bure in France, the process by which observing proposals are selected is described. The observatories have initially been created in response to the scientific interests of a relatively small group if scientists affiliated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) in Germany, and the Instituto Geográafico Nacional (IGN) in Spain. The CNRS, the MPG, and the IGN have paid for the initial investment and operations costs, and contribute at present 47%, 47%, and 6% to IRAMs budget, respectively. However, since the beginning IRAM has received observing time requests not only from scientists in France, Germany and Spain, but from all around the world. While this proves the strong interest in observations at millimeter wavelengths, and the important role that the IRAM Observatories are playing, it also leads to a number of questions in connection with future developments.