Dutch national e-infrastructure for research Outreach activities Jan Bot SURFsara 11/5/2017 NGI Roadmaps - Operations and engagement with new communities

SURF for research

Objectives of Support4research Increase knowledge about and visibility of compute, data and network services Strengthen ties with research supporters at the institutes and within communities; create community of research supporters Increase knowledge of researchers and research supporters on how to use the national e-infrastructure Gather e-infrastructure requirements and inform SURF subsidiaries Promote collaboration within SURF

Challenges for SURF Only a (relatively) small group knows how to find us and use our services Support model does not scale for LToS Position of SURF: local vs national vs international Expected increase usage of e-infrastructure by less tech-savvy users

e-Infrastructure landscape in NL Where to get facilities? Where to get training, support? Grants + guidelines Research infrastructure International Examples from the life sciences Dutch Institutional RUG Lifelines LUMC Shark Cluster VUMC NCAGRID

The ICT support triangle Local ICT support Advice, training, hands-on support Train-the-trainer Shape collaboration scientist SURF Advice, training, hands-on support

Visits to institutes 6 8 25 14 AMC EMC LUMC MUMC+ Radboud UMCG UMCU VUmc 6 Erasmus Universiteit Open Universiteit Radboud Universiteit RU Groningen TU Delft TU Eindhoven Universiteit Leiden Universiteit Maastricht Universiteit van Amsterdam Universiteit van Tilburg Universiteit Utrecht Universiteit Twente Vrije Universiteit Wageningen Universiteit 8 25 Donders Institute IKNL SRoN JADS Nederlands Herseninstituut RIVM Also describe presentations for ICT directors and other gatherings of research supporters (e.g. HiRes). Hanzehogeschool HAN HU HvA 14

Outreach activities Going beyond visits to institutes: Presentations at director level meetings Presentations during SURF update sessions for institute representatives Leading discussion sessions Portfolio presentations at institutes Contribute to local ICT events Contribute to international events e-IRG, DI4R, EGI

SURF research service portfolio Goal Create a uniform, SURF-wide description of research services Activities Creation of portfolio of research services & training Documenting a variety of use cases Overhaul of SURF for research website Impact Better visibility of SURF services for research Uptake of design principles for SURF website Re-use throughout SURF of created materials

Portfolio integration at the institutes Goal Bring portfolio of SURF services closer to researcher Activities Created uniform portfolio of SURF services Integrated portfolio on local website or intranet Delft university of Technology University of Groningen VU Medical Center Leiden University Hanzehogeschool Maastricht University Medical Center Impact Local research supporters part of route towards national e-infrastructure Triggered discussion: adding services of the institutes to the SURF portfolio Currently hard to trace success of activity

Knowledge exchange: master classes Goal Building community of research supporters Facilitate knowledge exchange by bringing together research support stakeholders (e.g. IT support & librarians) Activities Organised two Master Classes Maastricht University (2015) Erasmus University (2016) Impact Cross sector (university, medical center) knowledge exchange Input for other outreach activities (e.g. bringing together programmers and other experts) Input from funding agencies on research support Universities of applied sciences experience knowledge gap: separate master class in 2017 Number of participants 2015 MU: 45 2016 EUR: 50 2017 HBO: 65 , both by presenting and in discussion groups Mention MasterClass @RUG

State of affairs research support NL Goal Chart the state of affairs of research support at universities and university medical centers Results 4 initial reports bundled into one publication 1 additional report published at beginning of 2017 3 reports being finalised (as of March 2017) 1 abandoned due to internal restructuring of institute Impact Active uptake from the community: institutional visits between research institutes without SURF involvement International uptake Contacts from South Africa & USA Presentations at DI4R, e-IRG & EGI conferences

Training Activities Research Boot Camp Goal Increase (technical) knowledge of researchers and research supporters of national e-infrastructure by providing training Activities Organized 2 bootcamps & 1 ‘booster’ General overview of e-infrastructure Hands-on ‘get to know’ sessions Close collaboration with hosting institute and knowledge partners Impact Additional interest in dedicated training for individual institutes or research groups Interest in e-infrastructure services from new partners Training activities have outgrown S4R: moved to training project Research Boot Camp 10 November 2016 90 participants 21 april 2016 130 participants 3 October 2016 20 participants

Internal outreach Goal Increase internal, cross subsidiary, knowledge of own services Activities Organised internal information sessions about Support4research Organised hands-on workshops on IaaS Cloud, BigData, iRODS Target audience: anyone in SURF, coupling experts with less tech-savvy colleagues Impact Shared vocabulary within SURF Consistent service description across subsidiaries Awareness of the needs of research supporters S4R default route for inter-subsidiary questions

Collaborating with research funders Goal Help shape e-infrastructure requirements and funding at the proposal stage of research projects Activities Presented SURF services during Netherlands eScience Center call information sessions Organised first national e-infrastructure session for NWO Roadmap (Dutch ESFRI) participants Assigned points of contact to projects Impact Alignment of e-infrastructure needs early in the project planning phase

Lessons learned Research support goes beyond ICT Grants, statistics, experiment setup, machinery, etc. All visited institutes are implementing research support Institutes often uncertain where to start Institutes asking for input, both from peers at other institutes and from SURF Degrees of funding and proficiency vary Most local ICT groups want to be involved in e-infrastructure support Stick to ‘local first’ principle Institutes with own e-infrastructure see a role for themselves on the (inter-)national level People want one point of contact for all e-infrastructure services Viable alternative: no-wrong-door policy The perceived value of (inter-)national e-infrastructure providers is in expertise, not in machines Training is required, both for research supporters and scientists e-infrastructure related Generic ICT skills (basic programming, version control, Unix proficiency, etc.)

Looking ahead Continue portfolio integration at the institutes New edition of Research Support report Organise master classes Universities of Applied Sciences ‘Standard’ one Continue visiting the institutes, focus on: Universities of applied science Research institutes Scientific projects Reach out to decision makers Emphasize importance of research support & try to help shape policy Help scientific projects request e-infra resources in Roadmap call Experiment with facilitating local outreach Move activities to standing SURF organisation Work towards ‘single point of contact’

GÉANT Task Force on Research Engagement Development (TF-RED) Scope: collaborate between participating NRENs/research infrastructures, who then work within their own countries to engage their research support offices & collaborations Aim: Develop framework for research engagement amongst the participating NRENs/research infrastructure communities Results: Yield documentation for other NRENs/research infrastructures to develop their own form of research engagement, which will benefit the various research domains across Europe (and beyond), and communicate and strengthen collaboration between/with other research infrastructures

TF-RED info and invitation to contribute Open to anyone interested in research engagement to participate! Get in touch: tf-red@lists.geant.org or sylvia.kuijpers@surfnet.nl (chair) Wiki (including terms of reference & tasks): https://wiki.geant.org/display/RED/TF-RED+Home Sign up for mailing list: https://lists.geant.org/sympa/subscribe/tf-red Kick-off meeting at TNC17, 30 May, Linz, Austria: https://tnc17.geant.org/core/event/8

Would you like to know more? www.surf.nl/Support4research Cards Video clips Jan Bot Jan.Bot@SURFsara.nl 20