27 Feb 08 update The STFC has reaffirmed the UK's position as a full member of the Partnership under the terms of the current Gemini Agreement. The Gemini Board welcomes this statement. The Board acknowledges the STFC's need to address its budgetary constraints and notes that, under the terms of the Agreement, the UK is entitled to seek to sell some of its telescope time both within the partnership and, subject to the approval of the Board, outside the current partnership. The Board has directed the Observatory to continue the UK as a full partner, participating in all subsequent observing semesters, and all relevant committees and functions of the Observatory. 11 Feb 08 update The Executive Agency and the STFC agreed this morning on the terms for discussion of possible continued UK involvement in Gemini. Dates are being set for this discussion. Accordingly the Gemini Observatory has been asked to reinstate the 2008A UK observing time allocation according to the Board's resolution. The agreement between the Executive Agency and the STFC removes the conditional nature of the reinstatement in the Board resolution: Resolution 2008.Feb.09 The Board has received new correspondence from the STFC regarding the UK involvement in Gemini. The UK has committed to continue their Operations payments during 2008, and wishes to open negotiations with the Executive Agency and the Board to explore their options for continued participation in the Gemini Observatory. Therefore, the Board resolves to conditionally reinstate 2008A UK observing time allocations on both Gemini-North and Gemini-South. The Board asks that the Chair and Designated Members, including the UK, meet face-to-face at the earliest opportunity to further discussion of possible continued UK involvement in Gemini. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Dear UK PI, I am writing to update you on the tragic decision of Gemini to break the UK membership with immediate effect, with the loss of UK access from 1 Feb (08A). It appears that STFC had decided to fully withdraw from Gemini once they learned of the £80m hole in their settlement from Government which was put to Gemini Board on 14 Nov, based on its low (provisional) ranking assigned at that time within STFC overall list of priorities, together with the £4m annual operating costs and commitments to Aspen second-generation instrumentation (circa £4m remaining) notably PRVS and WFMOS. http://www.gemini.edu/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=260 Following input from the community, the STFC Delivery Plan from 11 Dec did change to now seek retaining access to Gemini North, though still withdrawing from future (Aspen) investment in Gemini, which was immediately followed by a letter from the UK STFC Board Member that put forward a proposed compromise (retaining Gemini North and scaling back on Gemini South). This proposal was rejected by Gemini Board on 24 Jan 08: http://www.gemini.edu/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=270 which includes a number of resolutions - primarily 2008.T1.1 the immediate expulsion of the UK from the partnership (UK already removed from Gemini web page) plus 2008.T1.3 which includes: "The Board instructs the Observatory therefore to remove from consideration and execution all 2008A UK proposals except for any Band 1 roll-over proposals and compensatory time scheduled for completion in 2008A." where the only compensation time is for Michelle (on long-term loan). The final ranking of Gemini was considered at STFC Council on 28-29 Jan 08 but will not be known until late Feb. The STFC statement: http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PMC/PRel/STFC/Gemini-Update.aspx notes that priority has to be given to ESO. At the present stage, regardless of who one might blame for the current situation, there are offers of mediation from the RAS: "The RAS would like to assist the Gemini Board and STFC to a fair outcome, of benefit both to the UK community and to the Gemini partnership, in any way that it can." Apparently the G08A UK withdrawal was not the strongest of these resolutions, so there may be a way to come back from the brink on the immediate cut-off (strictly speaking the cut-off is when the UK does give notice to withdraw which has _not_ yet been given). I have written to the Gemini Board chair asking for the reconsideration of the immediate withdrawal, with the main argument to maximize the scientific return from Gemini (the UK had the highest oversubscription for G08A of any partner country). If you wish to ask Gemini Board to reconsider this specific resolution about cancelling UK G08A programmes, you may wish to contact the Board Chair Dr Chick Woodward, chelsea@physics.umn.edu with any pertinent input (if so, please be polite and say that permitting UK access during G08A would require STFC to confirm that regular Gemini operations payments are paid until 1 Aug 08). Efforts are ongoing to retaining membership, but the likelyhood of success is not great. Paul Crowther, NTAC Chair for 08A The Oxford UK National Gemini Office have made the following comment: ------------------------------------------------------------------- STFC has announced in a press release that their negotiations to retain access to Gemini North have failed. The Gemini board now considers that the UK has given formal notice and, sadly we have to inform you that this is with immediate effect and 2008A programs will not be included in the queue. We are very sorry for the PI's who have already invested so much time in the preparation of their observations. We are shocked and saddened by this sudden news.