Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corp

“Cfht was formed under a tripartite agreement between the national research council (nrc) of canada, the centre national de la recherche scientifique (cnrs) of france, and the university of hawai'i (uh). These three institutions are the members of the corporation, referred to as the member agencies. Nrc and cnrs are both government-funded, research agencies of their respective countries. The uh is a public system of higher education in the state of hawai'i.”

“The member agencies appoint the members of the governing body (board of directors). Nrc and cnrs each appoint four directors and the uh appoints two directors.”

“The form 990 is submitted to the audit committee of the board of directors to review the form and reconcile the financial amounts to the audited financial statements. Once this process is complete, management submits the form 990 to the board of directors for their additional review, along with the audited financial statements.”

“Company policy requires all members of the governing body and key employees to disclose conflicts of interest annually on a signed statement. These statements are reviewed by management for compliance. If a conflict is discovered, it is escalated to the appropriate party within the organization.”

“15 (a) the current executive director (ed), dr. Jean-gabriel cuby, began his term on july 15, 2022. His salary was determined by comparable market data from similar institutions and deliberation by the board of directors. Every two years the board of directors conducts an evaluation of the ed's performance and reevaluates the compensation based on market data and job performance, adjusting as deemed appropriate. The actions are documented by contemporaneous substantiation with authorizations noted in the board minutes. 15(b) the salaries of officers and key employees are determined by the executive director based upon market-based comparisons of similar industries and institutions in which we compete for employees. Each position within the company has market-based compensation bands that are reviewed and updated annually. The compensation bands are based on local and regional salary surveys from variety of sources. Compensation within the bands from low to high is dependent on a variety of factors - career experience, tenure within the company, job performance, etc. All employees have an annual review which includes a determination of compensations adjustments. Compensation increases consist of a cost of living adjustment and a merit-based adjustment. The cost-of-living adjustment is applied to all employees based on location inflation and market-based indicators. Merit-based increases are considered for each employee based on performance, experience and professional skills development exhibited by the employee. All pay increases are approved by the board of directors before implementation.”

“The organization provides copies of its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“Herve aussel reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. Michael balogh reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. Douglas simons reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. J-j kavelaars reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. Martin giard reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. Claire moutou reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. Thierry contini reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. David lonborg reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. Laura ferrarese reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting. Stefi baum reimbursed under an accountable plan for travel expenses incurred to attend annual board of director's meeting.”

“Observatory operations canada-france-hawaii telescope (cfht) is a high-tech service provider delivering exquisite astronomical data leading to scientific discoveries at the forefront of today's astronomy. Cfht operates, maintains, and develops state-of-the-art instrumentation on its telescope located at the top of maunakea in hawai'i, one of the best sites in the world for astronomical research, servicing the scientific communities from canada, france, and hawai'i, and through collaborative agreements with taiwan and china. In addition, cfht has trained staff members who perform all scientific observations on behalf of its astronomical community and process the data stemming from those observations. For each of the 366 nights of 2024, the schedule had one instrument on the telescope and acquired data as weather permitted. In addition to three large programs involving dozens of scientists from communities worldwide, cfht performed observations for over 100 proposals, representing hundreds of active collaborators. Some of these proposals were from high school students participating in the maunakea scholars program. Also in 2024, a little over 200 publications appeared in refereed scientific journals based on prior years' observations at cfht. Cfht's communication and outreach program plays an important role in the local community via its educational activities in neighboring schools and cultural centers. This approach is threefold: (1) showcase cfht's staff, science, and instrumentation, (2) engage, excite, and inspire hawai'i island keiki and their families, and (3) expand cfht's outreach presence in our partner countries. Cfht supported three major outreach initiatives aimed at local students. Cfht continues to work with the "journey through the universe" program, supporting classroom visits for students across hawai'i island. Teachers select a topic for their classroom. Topics either support educational standards, for example reinforcing content like phases of the moon, how stars move across the sky, etc., or focus on student interests (black holes, exoplanets, etc.). The second initiative was the maunakea scholars program, which gave students from thirteen hawai'i high schools the opportunity to compete for actual telescope observing time. Thirty-five (35) students from seven high schools received telescope time during 2024. The third initiative was centered around the celebration of cfht's 45th anniversary day. The celebration included a public event and press coverage. Staff participated in the waimea solar system walk which included a birthday party for cfht, astro day in hilo and kona, winter star party, waimea christmas parade, classroom visits, summit tours, and other community activities. Program service expenses include reimbursed expenses of $723,753 for astronomer services (reimbursed astronomer services), and $80,542 in miscellaneous direct reimbursed expenses related to carrying out astronomical research on maunakea”

“Maunakea spectographic explorer (mse) project in 2024, the mse project office continued to develop the mse telescope design in advance of a feasibility review. In parallel, the decision was made to expand the funding efforts for the project. Our key efforts during the year included submitting grant applications to the national science foundation for development funds to build a cfht/mse ifu instrument that is consistent with the science capabilities and the astro2020 survey report. In parallel with this, the mse project office co-proposed with the las cumbres observatory for nsf funding to develop the software platforms required for cfht to become part of the aeon network. That proposal was successful and is a three-year effort starting in january 2025 with cfht as a sub-awardee. This work is consistent with the astro2020 recommendations and the future plan for mse. In november 2021, the u.s. Astro2020 survey report was released, recognizing that mse matches two of the three ground-based scientific capabilities needed in the u.s. Astronomical community.”

“In 2024, all our state-of-the-art instruments were available to the cfht community. We operate five instruments remotely during normal operations, which also includes two benchmark surveys: (1) to discover nearby earth-like planets in the habitable zone of the most nearby stars, and (2) to answer some of the most fundamental questions in astronomy about the properties of dark matter and dark energy, the growth of structure in the universe from galactic to galaxy cluster scales, and the assembly of the milky-way, and (3) to discover, track, and characterize small solar system objects beyond the orbit of neptune to test planet formation models cfht operated at full capacity in 2024.”