1. Nordic ARC Update Nov 17 th 2008 ARC face-to-face ESO Garching John Conway

2. Manpower John Conway – 30% FTE – Permanent position - ARC node director Mikael Lerner – 100% FTE – Permanent position – Software support – starting January 2009 Sebastien Muller – 60% FTE support– Postdoc for 2 years funded by Nordforsk – starting January 2009.

3. Outreach Joint funding proposal with Nordic Optical Telescope approved by NORDFORSK for two PhD student training schools in 2009/2010 – promoting optical/IR/millimetre astronomy and synergies ‘Star-formation in our galaxy and nearby Galaxies’ - Turku, Finland, June 8th-18 th. ‘Millimetre astronomy and ALMA’ – Gothenburg, Sweden, June 2010.

4. Hardware Major upgrade of computers at observatory underway- blade server + large PC cluster being installed (December 08) 10 Gbit/s link from observatory now operational Plan further investment in user computer facilities in early 2009