Who Can Apply Where
With the NSF-funded open-access, the U.S. astronomical community became a member of LCO's Science Collaboration with guaranteed time on the LCO network. Like other such partners - Australian National University, South African Astronomical Observatory, the Chilean astronomical community, University of Hawaii, University of Texas at Austin, St. Andrews University, the Israeli consortium I-CORE, the National Astronomical Observatory of China, and LCO itself - the U.S. community runs its own time allocation process each semester (through NOIRLab), and NOIRLab communicates to LCO the projects that have been awarded time. The policies governing who can apply for time through each partner's allocation process are theirs to decide. Regular proposals, handled through each partner's allocation process, should not directly compete with LCO Key Projects.
In addition, the LCO Science Collaboration participates in a Key Project program to identify large-scale, high-impact projects that highlight the unique capabilities of the LCO network. All partners (including the U.S. community) are invited to propose these projects through an annual call from LCO. LCO runs the TAC review for these proposals and provides the network observing time (though partners are encouraged to supplement the time allocated to the successful key projects through their own allocation processes).