under the auspices of the European Commission

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 IDi, 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 TS
  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
OPTICON Access Programme Observatories
Obs. Saint-Michel
Obs. Pic du Midi
Calar Alto
Obs. Helmos, Kalavryta
Canary Islands (OT ORM)
Access Office
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 support 50 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 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
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
2004
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 IDi, 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.

• 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 TS 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 telescopes18

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
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
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
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
CH
CR
DE
FR
AT
IT
GR
UK
NL
ES
DK
US
AU
41

• Thank you