LhARA Executive Board 29Nov23; 16:00 GMT

Agenda

1. Notes and actions: All
   

Status of actions:

• KL, TG: Push on contacting institute PIs re signing MoU and consulting re positioning in next proposal.
  • Now under IB report on agenda.
• KL: Flag need for no-cost extensions with MN, cc: Chris Gordon, SV
  • Done.

2. What we know of STFC consideration of ITRF PA2 proposal KL / All
   Situation as presented at the ITRF Project Board was summarised: IF Wave 4 administration decided not to entertain bids for second Preliminary Activities or "Preliminary+", Preliminary Activities with a larger value. As a result, STFC EB decided not to let the LhARA/ITRF big go forward. Bridging funds are now being discussed, though there is no clarity on how much or how long. The concept for the IF proposals now appears to be to go from Preliminary Activity to full proposal.

In the discussion we noted or agreed:

• Argue for bridging over 2-years at £2M per year; arguments include momentum, risk management, haven't realised benefit of current investment; ...
• In addition, argue that the bridging activity include provision for students; training, continuity, leverage of supervisor effort.
• Failure to deliver bridging would put at risk the present, and growing, International visibility.

Also discussed:

• Meeting AG/KL with Heather Burgess @ MRC; very useful, she offered to support discussion within STFC. We agreed to provide her with a short intro paragraph by email and to follow up.
• Approaching STFC for resources for, e.g., the Gabor lens;
• The need to do peer group engagement including contacts at CRUK, RADNET,

3. LhARA/ITRF PA1 progress report: CW
   
   • Issues largely as noted in previous meeitngs:
     • WP3 recovering from slow start due to delays in recruitment;
     • WP4 needs to make transition to construction of proof-of-principle system;
     • WP5 needs to continue present stakeholder engagement and develop stronger activity in novel detection techniques.
     • WP6 good progress; probable need to broaden engagement in study of FFA.

4. LhARA/ITRF PA2 project plan preparation: CW / All
   
   • CW report that he had a good start on the costing. Drafting of the proposal has stalled. Still need to try and complete before Christmas.

5. PoP experiment: JPar
   
   • Good progress in discussion; need to move to development of scheme for beam line.

6. LhARA IB report: TG, YP
   
   • Including author list for PA2 project plan document.
     • Agreed to write to IB to seek to admit groups interested to join the activity and to initiate Doodle for next IB meeting.

7. LhARA SB report: BB, KP
   None this week.

8. Collaboration and consultation meeting dates:// KL
   • 26Apr24; ICR, London
   • Sep24, Belfast

9. DONM
   13Dec23; 16:00 GMT

10. AoB
    

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