Following the recommendation of the Time Allocation Working Group and to support the rehaul of the whole proposal handling system, ESO is now requesting all science users provide more detailed information in their User Portal profile. This is to enable further and more accurate statistical studies on time allocation systematics, to improve the optimisation of proposal distribution in the current system (for example, to support Distributed Peer Review, and enable more complete bibliometric analyses).
Update to ESO User Portal Profiles for All Science Users
Published: 31 Jan 2020
The additional information - some of which is compulsory - includes gender, year of PhD, ORCID and a series of keywords for specifying scientific and technical expertise. This information will be used for operational and statistical purposes only, under the regulations described in the ESO User Portal personal data protection notice. This requirement only applies to scientists planning to submit proposals as Principal Investigator (PI) or co-Investigator (CoI) and/or to members of the panels of the Observing Programmes Committee.
In order to ensure the largest possible completeness in the User Portal profiles, all users intending to submit a proposal either as PI or coI are required to complete their UP profile at their earliest convenience. Brief instructions are given at the end of this announcement. This new requirement is effective as of today and applies to all proposal types, including DDTs to be submitted in the current period.
Users failing to do this will not be able to submit a proposal as PI and/or as CoI. Users planning to submit a proposal as PI should make sure all their coIs are registered in the UP and that their UP profile has been completed. In order to avoid last minute issues this should be done well ahead of the proposal submission deadline. Completing the UP profile takes only a few minutes, and can be done following these simple steps:
- Access the User Portal with the required credentials.
- Select "Manage Profile" from the menu on the left. In the UP Profile page, tick the box:
o I want to submit (an) observing proposal(s) (as PI, dPI or CoI) and/or be considered for selection as a proposal referee - Proceed with filling in the required fields.
- Click Save changes.
The User Portal profiles are at the core of several scientific and operational functions, from tracking ESO’s publications and managing institutional conflicts in the proposal distribution phase to measuring and monitoring possible systematic effects, hence allowing ESO to evaluate and deploy possible corrective measures. It is therefore vital that they are up to date at any time. All users should take advantage of this opportunity to check their entire profiles, and make sure that all the information (affiliation, email address, etc.) is up to date.
Thank you for helping ESO to continue to work towards fair, equitable and transparent processes.