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May I request an extension to my observing program's proprietary period? - Knowledgebase / General ALMA Queries - ALMA Science

May I request an extension to my observing program's proprietary period?

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After ALMA data are fully assessed for quality assurance and delivered through the Regional ARCs, the one year (6 months for a DDT) proprietary clock starts for that delivered MOUS.  Extensions to the proprietary period for any observing program are strongly discouraged and such requests are sent to the ALMA Directors for consideration.  If a PI of a submitted ALMA observing program wishes to advocate for an extension of the proprietary period for an observing program, the PI should submit a ticket to the the "Proprietary Period Extension Requests" Department.

The Subject of the Helpdesk ticket should contain the Program ID and Scheduling Block of the data requesting the extension. The ticket should have a complete and thorough description of why these data should be given an extension after the year long (or 6 month DDT) period has passed.  The fields Project Code, Desired end date of the proprietary period, and Justifications for Proposed Extension are required to be filled before submission of the ticket.

The ticket will be transferred to the ALMA Directors for consideration and during the time when the request is being considered, the existing proprietary period is still in effect for those data.  There is no guarantee that the request will be accepted by the ALMA Directors and the decision of the ALMA directors for all these requests is final. 


Please see the Extension of Proprietary Periods in the ALMA Users' Policies for more detailed information.


Every Executive has extensive community outreach and visitor programs that are available to ALMA PIs.  To request a visit to any ARC, especially for data reduction and analysis, a user should submit the request to the "Face to Face Support" department of the Helpdesk.  ARC staff are available to PIs in order to get the most out of the delivered ALMA data products.