JWST Call for Proposals for Cycle 5

STScI solicits proposals for JWST General Observer (GO), Survey, and Archival Research (AR) programs. 

This document establishes the goals, requirements, and policies for JWST GO, Survey, and AR programs in Cycle 5. The Table of Contents for the web version of this document is on the left side of this page (some users may not see this sidebar, but instead have a "Browse" button at the the top or bottom of the screen), and links there can take you to any page from any other page (click the arrow to expand the entire table of contents under "JWST Call for Proposals for Cycle 5"). The links at the top of each page under "On this page" correspond to sections within that given page. Downloadable PDF collections of these articles are provided as a courtesy, made available and updated when feasible.

The online documentation is the authority and will be updated with the latest information.

On this page

Late breaking news

New information that arises during the Cycle 5 Call for Proposals will be provided here.

  • April 1, 2026:
    • Budget Deadline: For successful proposers, the deadline for submission of JWST Cycle 5 budgets is Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 5pm EDT. STScI Grants Administration will host a Cycle 5 Grants JWebbinar on Thursday, April 9, 2026 at 1:30 pm EDT to assist proposers with budget preparation. For more information visit the Grants Administration webpage.
       
  • October 16, 2025: 
    • STScI is freezing the submission process for all Cycle 5 proposals that were not approved for specific extensions. That includes requests to add investigators. STScI understands that there are many reasons why a co-I might not have been included when a proposal is first submitted and permits investigators to add additional collaborators after the proposal is accepted. The JWST Observing Program Modification Policy page describes how to submit these PI/co-I change requests. 
       
  • October 8, 2025:
    • A problem that affected Visit Planner processing of moving target proposals has been identified and fixed:
      • All Moving Target processing results are cached (saved) on the APT Visit Planner server to reduce the processing time; those results should be retrieved if nothing in the proposal specification has changed that affects the processing.
      • A bug was identified that made it so that the Visit Planner server was not noticing changes to the target specification or the observing windows. This resulted on the cached results being used in error, instead of recomputing in these cases. As a result, the schedulability of moving target observations was unreliable, and tweaks introduced to the moving target specification would generate confusion.
      • This bug has been fixed on the Visit Planner server now.

    • APT Guide Stars Availability in Bright Crowded Fields:

      • While preparing Cycle 5 proposals with targets in bright crowded fields, such as the Galactic Center, some JWST users have reported that the Astronomer’s Proposal Tool’s (APT) Visit Planner is unable to find guide stars. This is because of changes in the guide-star selection criteria. These changes have improved the execution of observations in crowded fields, but currently make the observations appear non-schedulable in APT, even though guide stars are available.

      • STScI encourages users in this situation to submit their proposals, providing a comment in APT about why they are submitting an un-schedulable program. If the proposals are successful, the Program Coordinators will work with affected PIs to select the guide stars.
         

  • October 2, 2025:
    • The recently developed "multistripe" capability for JWST near-infrared detectors exhibited unexpected behavior during the first use in flight. The cause of that behavior is now fully understood, and the fix is straightforward. Multistripe observations are scheduled to resume before the start of Cycle 5. Multistripe can be used to record short-wavelength DHS spectra in NIRCam Grism Time Series observations and to observe very bright targets with NIRISS Single Object Slitless Spectroscopy (SOSS). Proposers should not hesitate to submit proposals that use multistripe capabilities.
       
  • October 1, 2025:
    • The online version of PandExo, available through the ExoCTK platform (exoctk.stsci.edu), has been upgraded from Pandeia 3.2 to the latest Pandeia version (5.0). This new version fixes bugs that were preventing users from performing secondary eclipse calculations with some instruments. Tests using a representative set of targets did not reveal significant differences in precision predicted by PandExo when using the two Pandeia versions. However, to ensure consistency, users are advised to repeat their calculations with the latest PandExo online version.

  • September 24, 2025:
    • In the event of a potential partial US government shutdown, STScI will extend the deadline for JWST Cycle 5 proposals involving scientists who are unable to undertake research during that time.
      The US government is in the process of approving its annual budget for fiscal year 2026 (FY26), to go into effect on October 1, 2025. Delays in the budget approval process might lead to a temporary, partial government shutdown that could extend past the JWST Cycle 5 proposals submission deadline on October 15, 2025. In the event of a shutdown, STScI will extend the proposal submission deadline for affected scientists. Affected scientists include:
      • Principal Investigators (PIs) and co-Principal Investigators (co-PIs) of proposals who are unable to undertake research while the government is partially shutdown
      • Students working directly under the supervision of a scientist affected by the partial government shutdown
      • PIs whose proposals rely heavily on contributions using resources affected by the shutdown, e.g. computing resources.

Proposers who anticipate needing an extension should submit a proposal place holder on APT by close of business (5pm US Eastern Time) on September 30. The submission should include at least a title, instruments they plan to use, a draft of the abstract, a list of co-Is, keywords, and an estimate of the total charged time. This information will allow STScI to integrate those proposals into the review process, including panel and assignments.

Proposers must also submit a Helpdesk ticket to the Science Policy Division explaining how the proposal is impacted and including the proposal APT submission ID before 5pm US Eastern Time on September 30.

Proposal submission extensions if a shutdown occurs will be:

      • One week from the October 15 deadline if the shutdown lasts a week or less
      • Two weeks from the day the shutdown ends if the shutdown lasts more than a week

Update November 13, 2025: The partial government shutdown extended from October 1 to November 12, 2025. Scientists granted deadline extensions should submit the final version of their proposals by Wednesday November 26, 2025 (5pm Eastern Time). No new submissions and no late submissions will be allowed.

  • September 23, 2025:

    • In the event of a partial government shutdown, STScI will extend the deadline for JWST Cycle 5 proposals led by scientists who are unable to undertake research. Further information on the schedule and conditions for those proposals will be provided shortly.

  • September 22, 2025:
    • The JWST ETC team recommends that users move old or unused workbooks into one or more folders to make the workbook list page load faster (see details on this ETC JWebbinar presentation). An ETC update on Sept. 11, 2025 makes it possible now to move multiple notebooks into a folder in one operation.
    • Please contact the JWST Help Desk if you are no longer able to access JWST documentation (JDox) pages. Like many organizations, STScI is periodically tuning access rules to allow reasonable AI traffic without handicapping interactive users.
  • September 17, 2025:
    • The Rocky Worlds DD Team has shared an estimate of the number of eclipses the program might gather throughout the next years for the 9 target sample: LHS 1140 b (13 eclipses), TOI-198 b (22 eclipses), LTT 1445 A b (2 eclipses), TOI-244 b (8 eclipses), LTT 1445 A c (4 eclipses), HD 260655 c (2 eclipses), TOI-771 b (3 eclipses), TOI-406 c (7 eclipses) and GJ 3929 b (4 eclipses). These numbers might change once the Core Implementation Team works on scheduling these observations. For more information about the target selection and this sample, please refer to the September 15th Rocky Worlds CIT Information Session here.
  • September 5, 2025:
    • Following NASA policy, any material contained in the proposal that is derived from Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) technology must be described and cited. This information must be included with the References and does not count against the page limits. Failure to disclose the use of GAI will result in disqualification. For further information, see the full Policy on the use of GAI tools.
  • September 5, 2025:
    • The Rocky Worlds DD Team has selected the final set of M dwarf exoplanet targets for observation. The sample of 9 exoplanets targets can be found on the Program’s Website. Only data for the first two eclipses of GJ 3929 b will be available for AR proposals in Cycle 5, but the community is encouraged to consider complementary/supplementary GO programs or associated Theory programs.
  • September 2, 2025:
    • Guidance for Pure Parallel programs: The FAQ for Pure Parallels has been updated. Specifically, the list of previous pure parallel programs has been extended, and the purpose of the jwst-pure-parallel package has been clarified.

  • August 22, 2025:
    • APT: APT 2025.5.2 is now available. Cycle 5 proposers should use this version (or later) to submit their proposals. Submissions started in earlier versions can be transferred to 2025.5.2.

Announcement

We are pleased to announce the Cycle 5 Call for Proposals for James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) General Observer (GO), Survey, and Archival Research (AR) programs. We anticipate allocating up to 8,000 hours in Cycle 5 divided proportionally among Very Small, Small, Medium, and Large/Treasury program, depending on proposal pressure. We invite scientists to participate in this opportunity, which is open to all categories of organizations, both domestic and foreign, including educational institutions, profit and nonprofit organizations, NASA Centers, and other Government agencies.

Proposals are due on October 15, 2025 by 8:00 pm US Eastern Daylight Time.

The version of the Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) required for proposal submission is 2025.5 or higher. This version was delivered on August 22, 2025. We encourage prospective investigators to start preparing their proposals as soon as possible.

The Cycle 5 Telescope Allocation Committee will meet in the first two week of February 2026, with selections announced in March 2026.

For details, please consult this full Call for Proposals, including JWST New and Important Features. Questions may be submitted to the JWST Help Desk.

The telescope and its instruments were built under the auspices of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Management of JWST's scientific program is carried out by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).

Proposing calendar and deadlines

Cycle 5 Call for Proposals released: August 1, 2025

Cycle 5 proposal deadline: October 15, 2025 by 8:00 pm US Eastern Daylight Time

Cycle 5 peer review meeting: February 2–12, 2026

Cycle 5 selection notifications to all proposers: Early to mid-March 2026

Cycle 5 budget submission deadline: Mid-April 2026

Cycle 5 observing dates: July 1, 2026–June 30, 2027

Important resources

Who's responsible

The JWST Call for Proposals and related materials for Cycle 5 were edited by Rebecca Levy and Amaya Moro-Martín. The Associate Director for Science, Mercedes López-Morales, and the Science Policy Division at STScI are responsible for the oversight of the JWST science program selection process, whose members include Laura Watkins (Head of Science Policy Division), Amaya Moro-Martín (Head of James Webb Space Telescope Science Policies Group), Daniel D'Orazio, Amy Jones, Claus Leitherer, Rebecca Levy, Nikolay Nikolov, Molly Peeples, Jamila Pegues, Lou Strolger, and Technical Manager Aleksandra Hamanowicz.


Next: JWST New and Important Features



Notable updates


Originally published