Joining NAN

Overview

NAN’s mission is to democratize access to high-field NMR and unlock latent knowledge in the collective body of experimental data by making it more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). A cornerstone of NAN is its advanced data browser, which lets users and labs easily organize, explore, and search their datasets.

NAN welcomes new NMR facilities that share this vision. To join, a facility must:

• Meet the technical standards
• Contribute to shared Knowledgebases
• Participate in governance via the Advisory Committee (AC)

Admission requires a majority vote of the AC.

Contact Information

Facilities interested in joining NAN are encouraged to reach out to the NAN leadership team and review the technical requirements below, the NAN Charter, and the Terms & Conditions.

What NAN Does and Does Not Do

NAN does not

• Schedule NMR instruments—each facility retains its own scheduling system.
• Collect user fees—billing remains internal to each facility.
• Mandate harvesting of every dataset—harvesting is controlled by facility managers and user preferences.
• Release datasets publicly until the user marks them public or three years have passed (extensions of one year may be requested within six months of the release date and repeated as needed).
• Require that an instrument be opened to external users—each facility decides which instruments, if any, are available to outside usage. Note that all instruments, whether open for external use or not, may utilize the data stewardship features of NAN.

NAN does

• Provide the NAN Data Transport System (NDTS) which automatic harvesting of datasets from NAN connected instruments.
• Furnish a user-friendly browser for dataset organization, exploration, and management for users, PIs, and facility managers.
• Maintain two redundant physical copies of every dataset, effectively backing up facility data.
• Give PIs flexible, intuitive controls for managing lab-group permissions which dictate access.
• Provide facility managers with tools to manage facility details, instruments, users, and monitor system status.
• Offer novice-friendly Knowledgebase content plus vetted reference datasets that can serve as experimental templates.

Fees

NAN currently charges no fees for membership or data services. If a fee structure becomes necessary, it will be determined by the AC.

NAN Technical Requirements

Facility managers must:

• Enter facility and instrument details via the Facility Dashboard.
• Supply a dedicated gateway computer:
  • Modern Linux OS, minimal CPU/RAM/storage (sub-$1,000 hardware is sufficient).
  • Connected to the same network as the spectrometer workstations.
• Install and configure the Gateway and Daemon software (see the NDTS Installation Guide).
• Manage NDTS settings for facility users through the Facility Dashboard.
• Reassign “unselected” or misattributed datasets in the Dataset Browser.
• Monitor NDTS health for their facility via the virtual NAN Operating Center (vNOC).