Outreach at the NGSGillian Sinclair

NGS Liaison Officer

Now what?

• You’re here – you like what you hear (hopefully)• Now what do you do?• Go back and tell people (again, hopefully) but how

do you follow it up?• User support staff – how do I get the message out in

my institution? How do I show the benefits to those that matter?

• End users – what do I do next? How do I sign up? How do I find out more?

You are not alone.

• NGS has dedicated outreach effort to promote the NGS to the user community

• Consultancy available – phone, email, have a chat– Every department, every research group is

different• A number of ways to increase the visibility of

the NGS at your institution • A lot of ways to keep in touch and up to date

How do we do it?

• Institutional – Campus champions (Dave has already covered this)– Roadshows

• Everyone– Literature, posters– Website – Conferences– Training– Mailing lists, blog, Facebook

• User feedback

Roadshows• Five roadshows so far – Aston, Bath, Norwich

biosciences, Exeter, Glasgow.• Two upcoming – Queen’s University Belfast, Newcastle• Over 120 people have attended including researchers,

PhD students, IT staff etc from all research areas – arts and humanities to physical sciences

• Tailored to your requirements in terms of length and content – you name it, we can do it

• Can incorporate training• Need about 8 weeks notice – the more the better!

Roadshows (cont.)

• Standard event – 3 hours including lunch• Introduction to the NGS• Presentations by real live NGS users on

research topics relevant to your institution• Presentations from the training team on how

to get started and how to run jobs• Lunch!

Roadshows (cont.)

• Hands on training can be incorporated– Half day, full day, even a couple of hours

• Roaming RA service can be made available• Feedback collected• Delegates encouraged to sign up to mailing

lists to keep in touch• Local organisers have very few responsibilities

for the event

Roadshows (cont.)

• Benefits – – lot of exposure for a little effort, 99% of the

organising done for you– reaches out to a lot of people at once– chance for users to ask technical questions direct

to NGS staff– good introduction for the “right” people at your

insitution to the NGS– a step on the way to becoming a NGS member

Takeaways

• Variety of reading material – some hot of the press (see downstairs!)– Introductory material, user case studies,

institutional benefits leaflet, newsletter

• Posters to display at your institution • Just ask if you want some• Benefits – free, you don’t have to write

anything

User case studies• 8 currently available on a wide variety of research areas• 3 more in production / ready to go• Nearly 2000 distributed so far• We write them so not a lot of work required from the

researcher• UK and international publicity (in iSGTW this week!)• Always looking for more!

Website

• You are the first to see it!• Feedback welcome and the chance to win Amazon

vouchers• The first port of call for many people, has to be

good• Has specific sections to direct people to what they

need to know e.g. how to get started, applications • More interactive and dynamic

Out and about

• Reaching out directly to end user communities• Conferences, user groups• Presentations – we’ll come and give dept

seminars etc• Training available on a variety of topics for all

levels of grid user, done where you are, can be specialised for your research area

Keeping informed

• Stay up to date with very little effort• Fortnightly email bulletin – publicity for you

and your research, done something interesting with NGS resources? Also NGS service updates such as new software etc

• Quarterly newsletter – always looking for interesting stories

• NGS blog – behind the scenes at the NGS• Facebook – meet other users

User feedback

• Feedback from all our events – roadshows, innovation forums

• Website feedback• User questionnaire coming soon!• Reports produced with actions

Get in touch

Gillian SinclairGillian.sinclair@manchester.ac.uk

www.ngs.ac.ukwww.jiscmail.ac.uk/NGS-NEWS

www.nationalgridservice.blogspot.comhttp://ngs-test.nesc.ed.ac.uk