We invite CASA users to partake in a User Survey that will be launched in June/July. This survey is meant to better capture the current usage and perception of CASA and to guide future development efforts. In addition, we always encourage the CASA users to contact directly their CUC representatives to provide feedback regarding capabilities, usability, reliability, and performance of the CASA software package.

The Call for Proposals for ALMA Cycle 4 (October 2016 – September 2017) closed on 21 April 2016. Over 1600 proposals were received, very close to the number of proposals for Cycle 3. Included were also 29 proposals for Large Programmes and 22 proposals for VLBI observations.

The ALMA Director, on behalf of the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) and the partner organizations in East Asia, Europe, and North America, is pleased to announce the ALMA Cycle 4 Call for Proposals (CfP) for scientific observations to be scheduled from October 2016 to September 2017.

Announcement from the German Node
The German node of the European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) invites applications for a postdoc position based at Bonn university.

The appointee is expected to support the technical and user support of ALMA, as well as conduct his/her self-defined research (50/50). Depending on his/her expertise, he/she shall work on single-dish integration efforts, including wavelet-based deconvolution tasks, or the development of polarization tools and calibration resources

The deadline for submission is 1 April 2016.

The call for 1-mm Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) proposals to use phased ALMA at Band 6 in Cycle 4, in collaboration with the Event Horizon Telescope Consortium (EHTC), will be released to coincide with the ALMA Cycle 4 Call for Proposals in March 2016. The EHTC is expected to comprise the Submillimeter Array, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, the Submillimeter Telescope, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, the South Pole Telescope, the Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano, the IRAM 30m telescope, and an antenna from the Northern Extended Millimeter Array. 

A new Band 9 receiver was installed inside the Swedish ESO PI receiver for Apex (SEPIA) at APEX in early February. This receiver, built by NOVA, is a copy of the ALMA Band 9 receiver, and covers frequencies from 600 to 722 GHz. After on-sky commissioning in late March, Science Verification (SV) observations are planned. Ideas for SV, which will allow testing of a large variety of observing modes for this new receiver, are encouraged.

The Call for Proposals for SEPIA Band 9 SV and further details can be found at the Call for Science Verification Proposals pagefor SEPIA Band 9.

Announcement from the Italian Node
11-12 April 2015 - Osservatorio di Radioastronomia Bologna, Italy

In preparation to the ALMA Cycle 4 proposal submission deadline of April 21st, the Italian node of the European ARC is organizing an "ALMA proposal preparation day" to support the ALMA users to prepare their proposals. This meeting will be held at the INAF-Osservatorio di Radioastronomia, Bologna, on the 11-12th of April.

As indicated in the Pre-announcement for the Cycle 4 Call for Proposals, the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) will accept proposals for Large Programs for the first time in Cycle 4. An announcement which provides guidelines to prepare a Large Program proposal can now be found on the ALMA Science Portal.