The Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) invites scientists to participate in the call for proposals of observing time at the three national radio telescopes:
– the 32-m Medicina antenna (Grueff Radio Telescope)
– the 32-m Noto antenna
– the 64-m Sardinia Radio Telescope
Two observing semesters are scheduled every year: 1st January to 30th June, 1st July to 31st December. Deadlines fall in October and April, respectively.
The telescopes can be used as single dishes for spectroscopic and continuum observations as well as for VLBI, outside the standard networks coordination (EVN, IVS, etc.) which have their own time allocations.
VLBI proposers must take care of organising the availability of international telescopes if needed by their observations.
They are also required to contact the antenna staff prior to submission, in order to assess the availability of software/hardware services and operators for their specific needs.
Please note that, if granted antenna time, proposers will be in charge of producing the schedule files for their observations.
Instructions on the submission procedure, current latex forms and characteristics of the instruments currently available can be found here
** IMPORTANT ** PLEASE USE ONLY THE LATEST LATEX FORM **
A dedicated help desk for the submission only may be reached via e-mail at radioproposal@inaf.it
The proposals will be peer-reviewed and must be submitted before 12:00 UTC on April 14, 2026.
Below we report the time INAF plans to award for the next semester 2026B:
* Medicina: 2000 hours (1)
* Noto: 600 hours (2)
* SRT: 1500 hours (3)
The observing time offered might be subject to modification, due to maintenance needs and to the variability of the commitments resulting from international agreements.
1) **** MEDICINA IN POST-UPGRADE PHASE ****
After the installation of the active surface on its primary mirror and of new devices, the Grueff Radio Telescope has resumed operations. Details on the improved performance are still being assessed.
2) **** NOTO PARTIALLY AVAILABLE ****
Due to major maintenance and upgrades, the Noto dish will be available only for a portion of semester 2026B. The detailed timeline is under assessment.
3) **** SRT IN SHARED-RISK MODE ****
SRT is in a high frequency upgrade phase. In the 2026B semester it is offered in “shared-risk” mode and with a limited number of receivers.
During the semester, SRT is expected to stop operations. In case, the projects that are not scheduled will be resumed after the stop.
Please note – Observations in Medicina can be performed remotely. Concerning SRT, remote observations are limited and need observers at the telescope provided by the projects. For further information about how to implement remote observations please contact the SRT user support; Italian VLBI and Eating VLBI projects require observers to carry out the observations of the project. Details will be provided in due time by the user support.
** NOTICE **
According to the MOU between INAF, KASI and NAOJ, up to 30 hours of observing time in VLBI mode are allocated to approved Eating VLBI projects.
These projects have to be submitted both to the Italian and partner TACs with the standard form selecting “EatingVLBI mode” in the project type.
Approved projects will be observed up to 30hrs/semester. Projects exceeding 30 hours will be scheduled together with all other projects according to their relative grades. PIs of these proposals must be associated with Institutes or Universities in Italy, Japan, or Korea.