The policies governing the JWST Director's Discretionary Early Release Science (DD ERS) program in Cycle 1 are established in this Call for Proposals. The DD-ERS program was selected in November 2017; this opportunity is closed. The approved programs are publicly available at the JWST Approved DD ERS Programs page.

Late breaking news

Updated versions of the Director's Discretionary Time Early Release Science (DD-ERS) programs will be submitted following the GTO schedule.

About this document

Scientists were invited to participate in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Director's Discretionary Early Release Science (DD ERS) program. A total of ~450 hours has been allocated to support 13 teams who will provide the community with early access to substantive, representative datasets to enable full scientific exploitation of JWST in Cycle 2 and beyond.

This document establishes the goals, requirements, policies for the JWST Director's Discretionary Early Release Science (DD ERS) program.

Important dates

The DD ERS proposal deadline was Friday, August 18, 2017, 8pm EDT. 

The DD ERS budget deadline was April 16, 2018, 5pm (your local time)

Who's responsible

Members of the Science Mission Office at STScI are responsible for the oversight of the JWST science program selection process. The members involved include Neill Reid (Associate Director for Science), Alessandra Aloisi (Head of the Science Mission Office), Amaya Moro-Martin, Louis-Gregory Strolger, and Technical Manager Brett Blacker.

Where to get help

Submit questions to the JWST helpdesk at jwsthelp.stsci.edu.  Consult JWST documentation at jwst-docs.stsci.edu, and see stsci.edu/jwst for additional tools and resources. 

Download PDFs

JWST DD Early Release Science Call for Proposals, version 1 [PDF]

JWST DD Early Release Science Call for proposals, version 2 [PDF]