sci26006 — Announcement
Call for White Papers on Multi-Cycle Treasury Concepts with JWST
12 October 2026
- By Chris Evans -
STScI has issued a call for White Papers for compelling scientific ideas for Multi-Cycle Treasury (MCT) programmes that require large allocations of JWST time to complete.
Now in its fifth year of regular science operations, JWST’s exceptional capabilities have opened a vast new discovery space that has enabled rapid scientific breakthroughs in nearly all areas of contemporary astronomy. Transformational science, from studies of small objects in the Solar System to large-scale cosmology, is being accomplished by programmes using the full range of instrument modes, and a wide range of time allocations, from a few hours to a few hundred hours. Given the ongoing unprecedented data quality and the anticipated excelling capacity of both the telescope and its instruments for years to come, the time is right to explore JWST science that requires time allocations exceeding those allocated to large programs to date.
With this goal in mind, STScI issued the call to the user community for white papers with ideas for JWST MCT programmes covering any science topic. The white papers should describe compelling science ideas that can only be accomplished with amounts of telescope time larger than those typically approved by the regular Telescope Allocation Committee process (about 300 hundred hours). White papers outlining concerns about the potential establishment of JWST MCT programs may also be submitted.
White papers received before the deadline will then be reviewed by experts from the community, who will evaluate the scientific merit of the submitted concepts and justification of the estimated amount of telescope time. Evaluations will be confidential and will help STScI and the JWST Project Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) determine if a call for JWST MCT programme proposals is warranted at this time.
White papers should be limited to no more than 5 pages and submitted here as a PDF. The deadline for submission is 4 November 2026. Further details are available here.
