Enhancing European Astrophysics Integration in the Canary Islands

1. Jesús Burgos: Disculpar la presencia del Director. Quisiera comentarles en su nombre lo que ha sido, es y debe ser en el futuro, también, la Astrofísica en Canarias, como núcleo estructurante de convergencia europea, es decir, como puente a los estándares europeos, desde el punto de vista científico, tecnológico, cultural, y por supuesto, económico y social. Porque nadie duda de la importancia que tienen las actividades de I+D+i, por supuesto también la astrofísica, en el desarrollo global, a todos los niveles, de una sociedad. Estamos aquí para hablar sobre el valor añadido que pueden tener las RUPs en beneficio de esa integración y estructuración del ERA, y de las necesidades diferenciadas, debidas principalmente a su lejanía ý aislamiento geográfico, a las que habrá que dar respuesta. Si la astrofísica en Canarias ha permitido un acercamiento de nuestra región a los estándares europeos, explotando convenientemente un recurso único como sus cielos, también, la forma en la que nuestra región, España y casi una veintena de países europeos han sabido explotar de forma inteligente ese recurso natural puede tomarse como un modelo eficaz de cómo lograr ese acercamiento a Europa, a través de una cooperación multinacional eficaz, de cómo hacer realidad el Espacio Europeo de Investigación, y de cómo disponer, en muy poco tiempo, de un centro de excelencia europeo, IAC, y una gran instalación científico-tecnológica: ENO. OPTICONTrans-national Access Programme under the auspices of the European Commission Telescope Directors Forum Observatoire de Haute Provence, France. November 17- 18th, 2004

2. Contents • OPTICON Trans-national Access Programme at a glance • OPTICON Access Office: • Current activities and plans for 2005 • 2004 Preliminary results • Management issues • Brief summary of the current situation and possible solutions.

3. OPTICON Trans-national Access Programme at a glance • Approx. 1000 observing nights/days + 200 hours over 5 years • 630 users, 400 observing runs, 500 – 600 T&S grants. • New users, young researchers and users from countries with no similar facilities are strongly encouraged to apply • Added value: • Impact and evolution, proposals submission system, publicity, scientific output, complementarities and duplications in awarding time, advanced progress report and statistics, etc. ~5.5 M€

4. TCS CAHA 2.2m CAHA 3.5m AAT UKST TBL Aristarchos LT NOT OHP INT WHT UKIRT CFHT ESO 3.6m TNG ESO 3.5m ESO 2.2m SST VTT THEMIS DOT OPTICON Access Programme: Observatories Obs. Saint-Michel Obs. Pic du Midi Calar Alto Obs. Helmos, Kalavryta Access Office Canary Islands (OT & ORM) Mauna Kea Hawaii La Silla Chile Anglo-Australian Observatory

5. OPTICON Trans-national Access OfficeStructure Alejandra Martín Gálvez 100% time Anselmo Sosa Méndez 50% time Belén Peyró Administrative support50% time 2 FTE Jesús Burgos Martín Head of the OPTICON Access Office

6. OPTICON Trans-national Access OfficeCurrent activities and Plans • Publicity • Improvements on management procedures and tools. • User questionnaires and feedback (Contractual issues with the EC) • Scientific output • Problems and advantages of a unique Selection Procedure and proposal submission system • Complementarities and duplications in awarding time • Standard progress reports and statistics

7. OPTICON Access Programme Website www.otri.iac.es/opticon/ OPTICON website OPTICON Access Programme on Internet Telescope operators’ websites www.astro-opticon.org

8. OPTICON Access Programme website www.otri.iac.es/opticon/

9. OPTICON Access Programme website www.otri.iac.es/opticon/ USERS, TELESCOPE MANAGERS, ADMINISTRATORS

10. OPTICON Access Programme website www.otri.iac.es/opticon/

11. OPTICON Access Programme website www.otri.iac.es/opticon/

12. Information and publicity. JENAM 2004 OPTICON was presented at JENAM 2004 (Granada). A poster summarising the Programme was exhibited and handouts were made available

13. Users profile. Publicity. Two announcements were sent to the European astronomical community (March and October 2004). A special effort was made on rasing awareness of the Programme in Central Europe countries IE

14. OPTICON Trans-national Access OfficeCurrent activities and Plans • Publicity • Improvements on management procedures and tools. • User questionnaires and feedback (Contractual issues with the EC) • Scientific output • Problems and advantages of a unique Selection Procedure and proposal submission system • Complementarities and duplications in awarding time • Standard progress reports and statistics

15. Improvements on management procedures and tools. • To guarantee the highest quality in providing our service to the community.

16. Procedure to select observing teams which qualify under the Access Programme. The Access Office requests list of OPTICON proposals awarded time to each Telescope Operator. 1 The Access Office checks criteria of eligibility over those proposals. 2 The Access Office notifies to each telescope operator those proposals that fulfil all the criteria of eligibility and those to be rejected. The Access Office contacts ALL user teams to inform them about this funding opportunity well BEFORE the observing run is planned to be carried out. 3 4

17. OPTICON Trans-national Access OfficeCurrent activities and Plans • Publicity • Improvements on management procedures and tools. • User questionnaires and feedback (Contractual issues with the EC) • Scientific output • Problems and advantages of a unique Selection Procedure and proposal submission system • Complementarities and duplications in awarding time • Standard progress reports and statistics

18. Astronomers output (JENAM ) Scientific Output SET UP WEB PAGE WITH INFORMATION ABOUT: • Publications in refereed journals • Press released • Participation in conferences: Poster contributionsOral contributions

19. OPTICON Trans-national Access OfficeCurrent activities and Plans • Publicity • Improvements on management procedures and tools. • User questionnaires and feedback (Contractual issues with the EC) • Scientific output • Problems and advantages of a unique Selection Procedure and proposal submission system • Complementarities and duplications in awarding time • Standard progress reports and statistics

20. Jesús Burgos: Disculpar la presencia del Director. Quisiera comentarles en su nombre lo que ha sido, es y debe ser en el futuro, también, la Astrofísica en Canarias, como núcleo estructurante de convergencia europea, es decir, como puente a los estándares europeos, desde el punto de vista científico, tecnológico, cultural, y por supuesto, económico y social. Porque nadie duda de la importancia que tienen las actividades de I+D+i, por supuesto también la astrofísica, en el desarrollo global, a todos los niveles, de una sociedad. Estamos aquí para hablar sobre el valor añadido que pueden tener las RUPs en beneficio de esa integración y estructuración del ERA, y de las necesidades diferenciadas, debidas principalmente a su lejanía ý aislamiento geográfico, a las que habrá que dar respuesta. Si la astrofísica en Canarias ha permitido un acercamiento de nuestra región a los estándares europeos, explotando convenientemente un recurso único como sus cielos, también, la forma en la que nuestra región, España y casi una veintena de países europeos han sabido explotar de forma inteligente ese recurso natural puede tomarse como un modelo eficaz de cómo lograr ese acercamiento a Europa, a través de una cooperación multinacional eficaz, de cómo hacer realidad el Espacio Europeo de Investigación, y de cómo disponer, en muy poco tiempo, de un centro de excelencia europeo, IAC, y una gran instalación científico-tecnológica: ENO. 2004 Preliminary Results

21. 2004 – Total amount of access / telescope 21,73% - of the total amount of access to be provided under the contract. LT, ARISTARCHOS, UKST and UKIRT:0.0 access

22. 2004 – Amount of access / telescope

23. 2004 – Total amount of access / month 21,73% - of the total amount of access to be provided under the contract. Access units M A My Ju Jy Au Sp Oc No Dc 2004 - Total amount of Access / month

24. 2004 – Number of projects / telescope LT, ARISTARCHOS, UKST and UKIRT:0

25. 2004 – Number of T&S grants / telescope • 69 Travel & Subsistence grants • 6 travel grants pending to be assigned LT, ARISTARCHOS, UKST and UKIRT:0

26. 2004 – Amount of access / PI home institution

27. 2004 – Number of users / Home institution • 333 users (members of observing teams) • 23 countries.

28. 2004 - OPTICON Access Programme by country IE

29. EC Contract constraints • TACs • Guarantee a reasonable and appropriate percentage of independent members • Observing time: • USER FEES • All the observing runs already supported and notified to user teams have to be reported to the EC. • Travel grants • Strictly linked to those observing runs awarded under the OPTICON contract • Eligible users have to be informed before the observations are carried out. • Technical and financial reports • Justification of the overspending during 2004

30. Management issues • Access provided during 2004 • Qualifying runs with OPTICON support • Exhaustive expenses control • Publicity and new users • Impact of the OPTICON programme

31. Management issues. Access provided during 2004 • First provisional statistics reported in June 2004 • Amount of access in 2004: 21,73% . • Telescopes previously supported under FP5: 38% amount of access. • New telescopes under FP6: 17 % • Solar Telescopes: 40 % • Night time telescopes:18% * Telescope operators contacted to discuss the current overspending situation.

32. Management issues • Access provided during 2004 • Qualifying runs with OPTICON support • Exhaustive expenses control • Publicity and new users • Impact of the OPTICON programme

33. Management issues • Access provided during 2004 • Qualifying runs with OPTICON support • Exhaustive expenses control • Publicity and new users • Impact of the OPTICON programme

34. Management issues.New users and Publicity • The Access Office suggests: • To continue the promotion of the OPTICON Trans-national Access Programme, specially for new user, including Central Europe. • Promotional material ( CDs, infodays, meetings, etc.) • Guarantee the visibility of the OPTICON support on the Telescope Operators’ Websites • To determine the rate of participation of these new users that are in principle eligible for OPTICON support. • Telescope Operators collaboration is essential • Encourage new users to submit proposals to those telescope with low rate of these applications.

35. Management issues • Access provided during 2004 • Qualifying runs with OPTICON support • Exhaustive expenses control • Publicity and new users • Impact of the OPTICON programme

36. 2004 - Impact of OPTICON Access Programme.Partnership in proposals supported by OPTICON 2004Number of the partnerships by country NOTE: Neither the amount of access nor the Nº of astronomers from the same country have been taken into consideration.

37. 2004 - Impact of OPTICON Access Programme.Partnership in proposals supported by OPTICON 5-6 projects 3-4 projects 2 projects AU: Australia AT: Austria CH: Switzerland CR: C. Republic DK: Denmark DE: Germany DK: Denmark ES: Spain FR: France GR: Greece IT: Italy NL: Netherlands UK: United Kingdom US: United States CH CR DE FR AT IT GR UK NL ES DK US AU

38. 2004 - Impact of OPTICON Access Programme.Partnership in proposals supported by OPTICON 5-6 projects 3-4 projects 2 projects AU: Australia AT: Austria CH: Switzerland CR: C. Republic DK: Denmark DE: Germany DK: Denmark ES: Spain FR: France GR: Greece IT: Italy NL: Netherlands UK: United Kingdom US: United States CH CR DE FR AT IT GR UK NL ES DK US AU

39. 2004 - Impact of OPTICON Access Programme.Partnership in proposals supported by OPTICON 5-6 projects 3-4 projects 2 projects AU: Australia AT: Austria CH: Switzerland CR: C. Republic DK: Denmark DE: Germany DK: Denmark ES: Spain FR: France GR: Greece IT: Italy NL: Netherlands UK: United Kingdom US: United States CH CR DE FR AT IT GR UK NL ES DK US AU

40. 2004 - Impact of OPTICON Access Programme.Partnership in proposals supported by OPTICON 5-6 projects 3-4 projects 2 projects AU: Australia AT: Austria CH: Switzerland CR: C. Republic DK: Denmark DE: Germany DK: Denmark ES: Spain FR: France GR: Greece IT: Italy NL: Netherlands UK: United Kingdom US: United States CH CR DE FR AT IT GR UK NL ES DK US AU

41. Thank you