Joining NAN
Overview
The goal of NAN is to democratize access to high-field NMR and to unlock latent knowledge in the collective body of experimental data by making it more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). A key feature of NAN is its advanced data browser, which enables users and labs to organize, explore, and search their datasets with ease. NAN welcomes new NMR facilities that share this vision to join the network. Membership requires a commitment to meet technical standards, contribute to shared knowledgebases, and participate in governance through the Advisory Committee (AC). Admission to NAN is subject to a majority vote by the AC.
Contact Information
Facilities interested in joining NAN are encourage to contact a member of the NAN leadership team, and to read the NAN technical requirements, NAN Charter, and NAN Terms & Conditions.
What NAN Does and Does Not Do
NAN Does Not
- schedule NMR instruments (each facility is independent and joining NAN does not change how scheduling is handled)
- collect user fees (each facility continues to bill users using their internal mechanisms)
- dictate that all experimental datasets are harvested - data harvesting is controlled by the Facility Manager and user preferences and may be turned on and off
- make data publicly available until users mark the data as public or three years after the data is harvested (Note, users may request the release data to be extended by 1 year within six months of the release date and this may be repeated)
- force a NAN connected instrument to become available for outside usage - while each of the instruments connected to NAN may benefit from the data stewardship features and is exposed to its existence, each facility decides if a given instrument is open for outside usage.
NAN Does
- provide access to novice Knowledgebase content for exploring how NMR may be utilized to solve important scientific problems by experts and non-experts as well as well vetted Knowledgebase datasets which may be used as templates for running experiments locally.
- provide facility managers and staff with resources for easy management of facility and instrument information, user settings, and status
- provides a user-friendly data browser for data organization and exploration
- keep two physical copies of all datasets essentially acting as a backup of facility data
- provide PIs flexible, but yet easy, permission management for lab-group users
Fees
NAN does not currently charge fees for membership or data services and we hope to be able to continue that in the future. However if sustaining NAN as a free resource becomes impossible, any fee structure will be determined by the AC.
NAN Technical Requirements
Facility Managers are expected to:
- Enter facility and instrument information through the Facility Dashboard
- Purchase a dedicated gateway computer
- Hardware requirements for CPU, RAM, and storage are quite minimal. A sub $1,000 computer is more than sufficient.
- Install a modern Linux OS and connect to the same network as the spectrometer workstations
- Install and configure Gateway and Daemon software (see the NDTS Installation Guide for detailed information)
- Manage the NAN Data Transport System (NDTS) settings for facility users through the Facility Dashboard
- Reassign “unselected” or misattributed data through the Dataset Browser
- Monitor the health of NDTS for their facility through the virtual NAN Operating Center (vNOC)
Additional Resources
NAN Charter
NAN Technical Requirements
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, 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 outside the lab.
NAN does
- Offer novice-friendly Knowledgebase content plus vetted reference datasets that can serve as experimental templates.
- Provide facility managers with tools to manage facility details, instruments, users, and system status.
- Furnish a user-friendly browser for dataset organization and exploration.
- Maintain two redundant physical copies of every dataset, effectively backing up facility data.
- Give PIs flexible, intuitive controls for managing lab-group permissions.
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).
Additional Resources
- NAN Core Member Contacts
- NAN Terms & Conditions
- NAN Charter
- NAN Technical Requirements
