About two hundred of Italian scientists are interested in participating to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (Rubin-LSST) project.

In response to a solicitation of Letters of Intent (LOI) from international entities to provide In-kind contributions in exchange for certain data rights to Rubin-LSST, INAF has proposed In-kind contributions of software development effort in the LSST Science Collaborations, telescope data and observing time from national facilities, and scientific/technological staff effort in support of Rubin commissioning. Such a contribution proposal was approved by the Rubin Observatory, the NSF and U.S. DOE, for further development in a full proposal. The latter was then submitted by INAF and approved in March 2021 by the Rubin Observatory Management Board. 

Assuming AURA is given authority by NSF under its Cooperative Agreement and SLAC by DOE under its contract to initiate, negotiate, and execute data rights agreements (DRA) as proposed, Rubin Observatory recommended that AURA and SLAC negotiate a data right agreement with INAF to provide data access rights for Italian scientists and engineers affiliated with INAF in exchange for the In-kind contributions in the approved program. 

Finally, after a negotiation process, at the beginning of 2022 a formal letter of support was provided by Rubin Observatory Management Board to INAF as a preliminary official acceptance and starting of the In-kind program, as an anticipation of the ratification of the final Memorandum of Agreement document, expected by the first months of 2023. 

Status Report (October 30, 2024)

The Italian scientific and technological community has already been heavily involved for some years in the preparatory activities of the Rubin-LSST project, carrying out various leadership roles in various work packages of the Science Collaborations (SC) and thematic Working Groups, dedicated to specific scientific topics and responsible for the design and development of scientific pipelines, actively participating in all project activities of scientific roadmaps and observational strategies. In this context, INAF has always played and will play the central role of coordinating the Italian participation in the project and for the scientific enhancement of LSST data.

The Italian participation in the Rubin-LSST project in the coming years is focused on the in-kind contributions program, for which the LSST Corporation undertakes to provide shares of data access rights, proportional and commensurate with the value of the In-kind contributions of different typology: (i) guaranteed observation time with instruments supplied to the proposing community; (ii) photometric and / or spectroscopic data provided in exclusive preview and obtained through the use of tools supplied to the proposing community; (iii) contributions to commissioning operations through software solutions (SW), data analysis and specialized manpower; (iv) computing resources dedicated to processing LSST data to obtain scientific products with added value; (v) the so-called “SW Directable”, i.e. the development of scientific software commissioned by the SCs, intended for the scientific pipelines of the project; (vi) non-Directable SW systems, i.e. SW solutions already supplied and scientifically validated in other contexts, made available to the SCs concerned. Access rights through In-kind contributions represent the only means of acquiring equal rights on the synchronous exploitation of data with respect to the US and Chilean scientific communities. The international program of In-kind contributions is governed by a specific management document that establishes a complex mechanism of responsibility and timing of the activities envisaged by the various in-kind contributions, formally agreed through a specific agreement between the parties involved. 

In-kind Program Management

In-kind program Publication Policy

All publications (of any type) reporting results and/or products directly related to the activities of an in-kind contribution project must adhere to the following rules:

a) Follow the Rubin-LSST international in-kind program instructions in document RDO-41 "Manual for In-kind Contributors and Recipients" (here available). In particular, see pages 28-29;

b) Inform in advance both program lead (M. Brescia) and program manager (C.M. Raiteri) of the Italian in-kind contribution program, possibly attaching a draft of the publication, inviting both of them to participate as co-authors of the publication;

c) If the published work refers to activities and products that have made or are expected to make use of the resources and services provided by the ADHOC data center, hosted at the Department of Physics of the Federico II University of Naples, the authors must comply with the rules set forth in the data center policy document, which they implicitly signed when requesting accounting (here available).

Program Lead: Massimo Brescia, Department of Physics "E. Pancini", Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Program Manager: Claudia M. Raiteri, INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino

Program Scientist: Giuseppe Bono, Università di Roma

The list of Italian In-kind Contributions and Contribution Leads is available here