NRT is a consortium project with multiple partners. The UK partner (LJMU) is funded by STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council) which is one of the major research councils as part of UKRI (UK Research and Innovation). STFC already financially support the operation of the LT (Liverpool Telescope) and now are supporting the development of NRT. STFC also support PhD studenships at the ARI (LJMU - Astrophysics Reasearch Institute).

The comittee came to LJMU to discuss all the above topics and learn about some of the exciting things going on at the ARI. They were given a tour of the facilities including the labs and overviews by the various team members at LJMU. The visit included discusisons on research taking place at ARI, demonstrations of LT capabilities and NRT progress and an overview of instrumentation development capabilities within the lab spaces.

The STFC representatives were Jenny Hiscock, Associate Director (Astronomy), Chris Woolford, Head of Astronomy Facilities and Chloe Woodcock, Senior Programme Manager, Astronomy Awards.

From LJMU the attendees were Iain Steele (NRT PI), Ian McCarthy (ARI director), Chris Copperwheat (LT PI), Ndy Ekere (LJMU FET Pro VC), Keith George (LJMU Pro VC research), Helen Jermak (NRT Project scientist)

The committee are given an overview of the science case for both LT and NRT by Prof. Iain Steele (NRT PI), Lego telescope model in foreground

Prof Iain Steele and Dr Andrzej Piascik give an overview of instrumentation build and test facilities in the ARI technology group dark room