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

2. SURF for research

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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.)

17. 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’

18. 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

19. TF-RED info and invitation to contribute
Open to anyone interested in research engagement to participate!
Get in touch: or (chair)
Wiki (including terms of reference & tasks):
Sign up for mailing list:
Kick-off meeting at TNC17, 30 May, Linz, Austria:

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