Merit Allocation Program

Supporting the Australian Astronomy Community since 2017.

Deadline for expressing interest in 2025 Semester A support: October 4th, 2024

Program Details

The Merit Allocation Program is a support system available to all members of the Australian astronomy community. Our diversely qualified team of designers, developers and engineers is here to assist in training or support for scientifically valuable software development projects.

The program is run twice per year, following standard academic semesters. If you have a large project that you would like supported, this can be managed through repeated applications.

Resources are allocated to projects based on their scientific merit and impact, with final evaluations performed by the ADACS Time Allocation Committee (TAC). See here for the current TAC membership.

For further details, see our Policies and Guidelines (pdf) document.

Types of Support

Software

Do you have a project idea that needs some software expertise? Got code that needs optimising? Do you need a UI designed or want to add a new feature to your existing software? Our team offers you their time and expertise so that you can spend yours on your research.

See our previous software support projects
Training

Identified a skills gap in your team? We deliver personalised and bespoke training both in-person and online. We can also take existing training materials/workshops and re-run, refine or expand them according to your needs.

See our existing training materials
Software + Training

A combination of software and training support might be appropriate for your project. We don’t want you to be reliant on our support; we want to empower you to support your own software and even add new features down the road.

See our previous projects

Application Process

The application process is similar to observing and computing proposals and, so, should feel familiar to astronomers. The main exception is that we don’t expect you to know the effort or resources required for your proposed project. We will work with you during a consultation stage to determine these requirements.

The application process involves three stages, all of which are required. Please read on for details about each stage.

1.

Submit an Expression of Interest

You are very welcome to express your interest in receiving support at any time of the year; however there are two things to keep in mind:
- Support is given on a semester basis (two opportunities per year), so if you would like support for a particular semester, make sure to submit your interest before the relevant semester’s deadline, approximately two months prior.
- The next stage (Consultation) uses up ADACS resources that are finite and, therefore, are offered on a first-come-first-consulted basis. The sooner you let us know you’re interested in getting support, the more benefit you can receive from the consultation process.
2.

Consultation

This stage involves an interview with ADACS followed by a project audit, where we assess the risk, scope and required resources of your proposed project. The audit will be performed in consultation with you.
3.

Submit a Formal Application

Once the consultation stage is completed you will be invited to submit a formal application, which will be assessed by the ADACS independent Time Allocation Committee (TAC). See here for the current TAC members.

Open Source Policy

All ADACS-developed code will be open-source and publicly available, and all training resources will be made available to the broader community. All applicants will be given the opportunity to make an argument against these conditions during the application process.