Help Guide LSSTC's Fundraising Efforts
Abstract: One of LSSTC's core activities is seeking funding from private donors and foundations for programs that enable or relate to research with Rubin Observatory LSST (such as the Data Science Fellowship Program, the Enabling Science small-grants program, and workshops with seed funding). Astronomers at our member institutions help to prioritize and shape the programs for which we seek support. During this interactive session, we want to hear what you think we should be fundraising for. The session may include a review of funding priorities that have been identified by some Science Collaborations. Members of all Science Collaborations are encouraged to attend.
Session Agenda: For the first 20 minutes, LSSTC's Director for Science will give a presentation reminding attendees about what LSSTC is, programs we have recently supported, some of our plans for the future, and differences between private philanthropy vs federal funding. Then, participants will be grouped randomly into small breakout rooms and spend approximately 20 minutes considering a set of prompts about what they would most like to see funded. For the final 5 or 10 minutes, we will bring everyone back to the main Zoom room and ask representatives from each breakout room to share a key takeaway from their discussion on the Zoom chat or Slack channel. Kim Briamonte will serve as scribe, and Dan Petrocelli will serve as moderator.
BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY: NOW, LET’S HEAR FROM YOU. INSTRUCTIONS FOR BREAKOUT GROUPS.
1. Select a time-keeper.
2.Go around and introduce yourselves to each other. Icebreaker question of the day: What discovery are you most looking forward to from LSST? (5 min)
3. Select a moderator to monitor the Zoom chat, and a scribe to take notes, ideally in a Google doc that can be shared with LSSTC later. Instructions for breakout groups:
4. Spend a few minutes thinking individually about what program, service, or item would be most helpful to you in preparing to do research using LSST data (if the answer is “Money!” — for what?). How similar or different are the answers from various group members? (10 min)
5. Next, can you identify something that doesn’t already exist that would benefit ALL OF YOU in your LSST-related research or preparations? (10 min)
6. If you have time: What unconventional program that cannot be funded through traditional funding streams such as NSF grants do you think would be most helpful to the community?
7. Two minutes before the end of the breakout session, please decide on one takeaway from your discussion that your moderator can share on Slack.
Live Recording
Financial support for LSST comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Agreement No. 1258333, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded LSST Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). The DOE-funded effort to build the LSST camera is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an
independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.
NSF and DOE will continue to support LSST in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.
