Championing e-infrastructure Gillian Sinclair, NGS Liaison Officer Claire Devereux, NGI Manager

What is the NGS? The UK’s provider of e-infrastructure to researchers from all research areas – high energy physics to social science 25 member sites but used by researchers from a much larger number of institutions. Together with GridPP we make up the UK NGI. The NGS has 2 types of champion programmes with similarities and differences!

Campus Champions Based at an institution (e.g. university, research centre) and they represent that institution Loosely based on the TeraGRID (now XSEDE) Campus champions program Any UK institution can nominate a champion Can have more than one champion Mainly IT representatives No dedicated funding

Current Campus Champions Canterbury Christchurch Abhaya Induruwa University of BirminghamMark Slater University of EdinburghSteve Thorn University of Huddersfield Ibad Kureshi University of Hull Helen Wright University of Leeds Dureid El-Moghraby University of Liverpool Ian Smith & Cliff Addison University of Manchester John Brooke Queen Mary University of London Christopher J. Walker University of Oxford Lino Garcia-Tarres University of Reading Marc Stringer STFC - Daresbury Laboratory Rob Allan STFC - Rutherford Appleton Jonathan Churchill University of Sheffield Mike Griffiths University of Surrey Lee Gillam University of Sussex Jeremy Maris University of York Aaron Turner

What do we ask the Campus Champions to do? Actively promote the NGS within their institution through: – offering advice and guidance to researchers – giving presentations – representing the NGS at local IT events – ensuring that IT management are aware of the NGS – and any other mechanisms possible Attend bi-monthly phone calls of Campus Champions To pass onto the NGS requirements from their institution and researchers To liaise between researchers, the institution and the NGS Display NGS badging where possible online and in real life i.e. office door, poster in department, distributing leaflets etc Publicise their role as Campus Champion on their personal institutional web page

What do we do for Campus Champions? Knowledge building to become a source of expertise in grid and e- infrastructure Training in using the NGS, grid resources, cloud, providing certificates and any other appropriate areas e.g. job submission and UI-WMS Online training materials A record of training and certification Bi-monthly phone calls to ensure that the Champions are up to date with news from the NGS and other major projects e.g. EGI, major national and international e-infrastructure projects, EU FP7 projects. Campus Champion meetings at UK e-science events Campus champion promotional material e.g. fliers, poster Mailing list for news dissemination and discussion

The SeIUUCR Project Supporting e-Infrastructure Uptake through Community Champions for Research Collaboration between NGS and Software Sustainability Institute (SSI; To develop and support a network of Community Champions to advocate the use of e-Infrastructures in their research. Directly fund 7 Community Champions Community Champions are active e-science users and help promote uptake of e-infrastructures within their communities Also fund workshops and an annual summer school, as well as providing travel bursaries for Champions and others to attend conferences and disseminate e-infrastructure usage. Funded by EPSRC until April 2013

Community Champions David Wallom – University of Oxford – Energy Pamela Greenwell – University of Westminster – Bio-medical Sciences Phil Fowler – University of Oxford – Computational Biophysics Rebecca Notman – University of Warwick - Chemistry Zhongwei Guan – University of Liverpool - Engineering Nicholas Holliman – University of Durham – Physics Simon Cox – University of Southampton – Engineering & Computer Science Neil Caithness – University of Oxford – Biodiversity & biodiversity informatics More unfunded Community Champions currently under discussion.

Community Champion responsibilities Attend monthly phone calls Report on the “grand challenges” facing their research areas Feedback on developments from within their research area e.g. large grant announcements Identify areas where the NGS can assist Report back from conferences and submit conference presentations for the SeIUCCR website area Contribute to the planning and content of the SeIUCCR summer school Attend and present at SeIUCCR workshops and events Display Community Champions branding in office / dept / website etc

Outcomes More embedded in UK research Awareness raising of resource availability and NGS services in institutions and research communities Joint research proposals between NGS and Community Champions and NGS and institutions Greater awareness of the needs and requirements of user communities More dialogue with and involvement in institutions More publicity!

Further information