Welcome and CNAP News

Generic Support Issues for Astronomy Community When there was a larger number of Starlink staff at RAL there were a number of different contributions to the support of the Astronomy community. Most of these tasks can no longer be supported and this is now raising significant problems. Some of the topics that were discussed in the meeting included the issuing of IDL and other licenses and the organisation of System Managers meetings. We felt that a number of these generic support items do need support and we need to find a new way of providing this. System Manager Meetings The highest priority request from the Astronomy community was for the restoration of support for System Managers meetings which were considered a vital component of their work and particularly valuable for new and part-time system managers. These 6 monthly meetings to encourage best practice and to help our staff to tackle the many urgent computer issues including security.

Software Training Courses at RAL We strongly supported the continuation of these courses. There is a large demand from new PhD students and postdoctoral staff particularly for the OO and introductory C++ courses early in the academic year. Support an increase in the number of these introductory courses as currently many people who are interested are not able to attend We would also support the inclusion of some IDL courses.

The continued evolution of the international network is mission critical to PPARC, and therefore strategically important. All of our science depends upon performant networks. We rely upon the international research and education network infrastructure provided by UKERNA, DANTE, INternet2, ESNET...., and this relies upon our influence and relations with them. At present the engagement and influence of PPARC experiments with the network providers has never been better. The requirement is to continue our very strong influence in this sector.