Procedures to apply for Planck Gruber Fund grants

Introduction

The 2018 Gruber Cosmology Prize was awarded to the Planck Team and to its two PIs, Reno Mandolesi and Jean-Loup Puget. One-half of the monetary award was awarded to the Planck Team, and the other half was divided between the two PIs. The half that went to the Planck Team, was divided amongst a list of ~40 senior members of the Planck Collaboration selected by the PIs.

Following the award, the PIs proposed to set up a fund which would collect voluntary donations by the recipients, and distribute them back to members of the Planck Collaboration for purposes related to Planck and/or CMB science. The PIs came to an agreement with ESA's Director of Science that this fund would be managed by ESA. The Fund started operations in March 2019, and operates by the Procedures described below.

The ESA Gruber Fund is no longer active

In early 2021, in view of the low number of requests coming to the Fund, and of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, the Fund Committee decided to spend all the remaining funds on a single workshop. This workshop ("From Planck to the Future of the CMB") took place between 23 and 27 May in Ferrara (Italy). The Fund therefore no longer has any funds that can be allocated to proposed requests. Potential donors to the Fund are advised that the Fund will no longer be reactivated.

General

- a Fund Committee has been formed consisting of Reno Mandolesi, Jean-Loup Puget, Guilaine Lagache, Anthony Lasenby, Bruce Partridge, and Jan Tauber
- the Committee will collect requests which cannot be handled automatically and evaluate them at (virtual) meetings held at regular intervals (typically every two months) and called by the Project Scientist
- individual Committee members who are involved in a request will not participate in its evaluation
- the Committee will remain in existence as long as there is money in the Planck fund
- all grants approved will be made visible to the Planck Collaboration (via the page at https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/planck/gruber-fund-recipients )
- two kinds of grants will be considered: Travel grants and Workshop Support grants. The procedure to apply for either is described below.
- any other type of request will be considered under the third procedure below.


Travel grants

1. Conditions:
- the grant is requested by and given to a person whose name is listed in https://gruber.yale.edu/planck-scientists 
- the grant will be used (a) to travel to a conference where work and/or results based at least partly on Planck data will be presented by the requestor, or (b) to travel to a collaborator’s institute to work on a paper based at least partly on Planck data, or (c) to travel with the specific purpose to publicize Planck and its results to the wider public.
- a requestor may not make additional Travel Grant requests within a period of six months after a Travel grant request has been granted.
- the grant may be requested for travel by a postdoc or PhD Student of the requestor if he/she will (a) travel to a conference where work  and/or results based at least partly on Planck data will be presented by the requestor, or (b) travel to a collaborator’s institute to work on a paper based at least partly on Planck data, or (c) travel with the specific purpose to publicize Planck and its results to a wider audience. In this case the requestor will forfeit his/her own right to request a travel grant in the following six months.
- the maximum amount of the grant will be 1000 euros. This limit is increased to 1500 euros if intercontinental travel is involved.

2. Procedure:
- the requestor will submit a request via a web form at https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/planck/planck_gruber_travel , for support of: conference registration fee and/or travel costs and/or accommodation costs.
- the request will include all the information needed: name of requestor and traveller, name and website of conference, title and abstract of work to be presented, estimates of expenses
- if the request clearly fulfills all the conditions above, and there is still money in the fund, it will be approved as soon as practical, and the requestor will be notified by email of the outcome. The notification will include a form which has to be filled in with bank account information and returned as soon as possible. After the travel is completed, the traveller will provide receipts showing that the amount has been spent as planned, and will provide a written guarantee that the expenses claimed will not be refunded by any other entity. The amount of the grant will then be transferred to the requestor, within a period of time which depends on ESA procedures.
- if the request does not clearly fulfill the conditions above, it will be passed on to the Fund Committee for evaluation. The committee will collect requests and evaluate them typically every two months.

Workshop support grants

1. Conditions:
- the grant is requested by and given to a person whose name is listed in https://gruber.yale.edu/planck-scientists 
- the grant will be used to support a conference or workshop whose main topic is closely related to Planck or to CMB-specific science and/or related technical areas.
- the person making the request is a member of the LOC or SOC of the workshop in question
- the maximum amount of the grant will be 5000 euros.

2. Procedure:
- the requestor will submit a request via a web form at https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/planck/planck_gruber_workshop .
- the request will include all the information needed: name of requestor, name and website of conference, description of the objectives of the workshop, specific use foreseen for the money requested
- the request will be evaluated by the Fund Committee at its next (virtual) meeting together with any other requests that have come in since the last meeting
- for its evaluation, the Committee will take into account: value to the Planck Collaboration, value to CMB science in general, and the amount of the request
- the requestor will be informed by email of the outcome as soon as possible after the evaluation has been completed. If the request is approved, the requestor will have to complete a form to be submitted to the ESA approval process. The form will contain similar information as in the original request.
- once the formal ESA approval process is completed, the requestor is responsible to ensure that ESA is invoiced for the amounts requested. The amount granted will be transferred following ESA procedures.
- after the conference has taken place, the requestor will provide by email proof that the amount transferred was spent for the purpose requested. If he/she does not provide such proof, he/she will forfeit their right to make any further requests.


Grants for any other type of support

- this concerns any grant requested from the Planck Fund which does not fall into the Travel or Workshop categories 
- the grant must be requested by a person whose name is listed in https://gruber.yale.edu/planck-scientists 
- the requestor will send an email to jtauber_at_cosmos.esa.int outlining the purpose of the request and the amount to be requested
- the outline will be discussed by the Fund Committee at its next (virtual) meeting
- if the Committee believes that it is worth evaluating the request in detail, it will ask the requestor to submit a more detailed request, providing specific instructions on what to include in it
- the Committee will then evaluate the detailed request at its next (virtual) meeting together with any other requests that have come in since the last meeting
- for its evaluation, the Committee will take into account: value to the Planck Collaboration, value to CMB science in general, the amount of the request, and the practical feasibility of its implementation
- the requestor will be informed of the outcome as soon as possible after the evaluation has been completed
- the process for disbursing the grant will be decided on a case-by-case basis.