Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to everyone. Thank you for joining us and making the time to learn about the NTP creation and touring grant process. We're happy to be able to provide this. My name is Keita Sullivan. I am the senior director senior program director for theater at NETA for a visual description. I am a middle aged, native and black woman with gray hair, more gray than I'd like to admit.  It's land, it's water and it's sky. I also reside on the lands of my kin, the Nipmuc, Wampanoag and Massachusetts people. And hi, my name is Derek Schwartz. I'm the program officer for theater here at NEPA or one of the program officers for theater. I use he, him pronouns and I am also calling him from the land of the Massachusetts, Wampanoag and Nipmuc people.  Hi all, my name is Leilani. I'm not sure that you can see me since we're looking at the slides, but if you can, the visual description is white skin, long dark brown hair that sort of matches into the brown shirt, coral lipstick, bright red glasses and large 90s print inspired headphones. Thank you for your patience as we are getting started. Hey Leilani, who are you in terms of NTP? That's a great question. I am the other program officer and I also use she series pronouns. I realized that I was multitasking and didn't complete the intro. I'm a lifelong resident of Maple Nation on Turtle Island, originally hailing from Wabanaki Confederacy lands known as Maine, currently living in the Misatuk or Mystic watershed in the lands of the Pena Cook Abinaki specifically. Thank you all for joining and welcome to welcome to our session. In the interest of disclosing my pronouns as well I use Nakam in my language or they and she. So what are we going to do today? This information should be useful whether you are new to NTP or a seasoned veteran of the NTP process. We hope we can provide you with the information you need going forward with the creation and touring grant application. And this session will be recorded and available on howl around and the NEPA website. This session is designed for general questions. If you have specific questions related to your application, NTP is offering office hours, which you can sign up for on the creation touring webpage of the NEPA website. And on that page you'll also find the recording to this webinar. It might take give us a little bit of time to get it online, but it will be there soon. Yeah. The topics we will be covering in today's webinar are who is NEPA which stands for the England Foundation for the Arts so right off the bat using an acronym there. An overview of the National Theater Project. We're going to answer what does a creation and touring grant support will go over NEPA's EDIA statement, the criteria and eligibility for this program. What is a development partner? That's a common question. The timeline which for those of you who are applying for the second time or more will notice has shifted. What and who are the NTP advisors? What is the application process and what are our most frequently asked questions? We'll go over the narrative question overview, work samples, and then have a Q&A. And before we go into the NTP grant, we wanted to just give a little bit of context about New England Foundation for the Arts. NEPA is a service organization that also acts as a funder investing in artists and creative communities. And the language from our website is NEPA invests in artists and communities and fosters equitable access to the arts, enriching the cultural landscape of New England and the nation. NEPA accomplishes this by granting funds to artists and cultural organizations, connecting them to each other and their audiences and analyzing their economic contributions. NEPA serves as a regional partner for the National Endowment for the Arts, New England State Arts Agencies, and private foundations. And it's worth noting that even though National Theater Project is run by New England Foundation for the Arts, we are a national program. The folks who are invited to apply from anywhere in the United States, and we define the United States as all 50 of the states as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the District of Columbia. The National Theater Project for development of artists led ensemble and devised theater work while extending the reach and life of these projects. And does this through our funding from the Lead Funding from the Mellon Foundation and additional funding from the Doris Duke Foundation. NTP was created in 2010 to explore if the National Dance Model could support devised and ensemble theater. In the beginnings, we gave six grants for creation and touring. We gave four to five artist development grants for a handful of finalists who did not receive the creation and touring grant. It included a cohort meeting between grantees and advisors and travel grants for presenters to see supported work. Today, we give 10 grants for creation and touring. We give artist development grants to all remaining finalists. There continues to be the cohort meeting between grantees and advisors. It's one of our favorite parts of the grant. And we continue to provide travel grants for presenters to see supported work. The National Theater Project is able to give 10 creation and touring grants. These grants are given to U.S.-based devised theater ensembles and individual artists who have identified collaborators. Projects vary greatly in timeline, scale, and touring interests. All of these projects must have one committed development partner, but the nature of those relationships varies greatly depending on the needs of the project. And we're going to come back to what a development partner is later in the presentation. The total grant award ranges from 80 to $130,000 with some portion of that money allocated to development funds and the rest allocated for touring support, which again we'll talk about in just a second. After receiving the grant, grantees must submit a tour plan to NIFA within two years that outlines where they will be touring the work with NTP subsidies. And we're just going to break down how that work or how that funding is split up a little bit. So NTP funding is divided into two categories, the creation and touring. So after our grant is awarded, NTP staff conduct conversation with grantees and NTP advisors to decide how to divide the grant money into those two buckets according to the needs of the individual project. The project is different. So we really base those numbers off of conversations with you, but typically we'll allocate about $30,000 to $80,000 for creation. And that money is issued pretty much as unrestricted payments for the artist to spend at their discretion. The remaining grant money is set aside as artists directed allocations, which will be distributed directly to presenters. The funds can support up to 50% of the artist fee for any given engagement. That money is paid directly to the presenter, but the funds are released at the discretion of the artist. So in other words, you would tell us how much of your touring subsidy you want to give to each organization that presents your work. This funding reduces the cost the presenters who want to present your work, which can open all sorts of possibilities for how the work towards people use different strategies for allocating that funding. So some folks might give large subsidies to a handful of presenters, or you might decide to give smaller subsidies to every tour site. That funding is intentionally flexible and the NTP staff and advisors are available as a resource to help grantees decide how to split the money and offer a reference for how other artists have used the funding in the past. In addition to helping you tour in new ways, we hope this funding can help subvert the power dynamics that often exists between presenters and artists and give artists more agency and power in those negotiations. We also recognize that this kind of negotiating requires labor, and we do have a requirement that all NTP funded projects have a designated tour coordinator who will negotiate directly with presenters. To help reduce that burden, NTP provides an additional $10,000 on top of your grant funding, which can be used to support a tour coordinator and or touring support, as well as other general operating needs. That money is released in full when you receive the grant and you are free to spend it however you see fit. So in other words, even though we say the grant is 80 to $130,000, it's really more like 90 to $140,000. Hi all Leilani speaking again. Before I go through the eligibility slide, I just want to acknowledge that we don't have our live captioning up yet, but it should be up momentarily. Thank you to our captioner Ariana, who is working on getting an alternate captioning method available to us while we deal with some surprise limitations to my account. Circling back to the actual presentation eligibility, the applicant must be a US based theater ensemble or individual artists with identified collaborators you heard Derek, give the description of us based for the purposes of this project to hear it again later on. As you can see on the screen above, it is also available on our website. The applicant must also have nonprofit status or a nonprofit fiscal sponsor. For the purposes of this grant, we are using the definition of nonprofit that is a 501 C3 organization or a tribal government. So if you don't have a 501 C3 status or fiscal sponsor in the preliminary phase, it is not a barrier to apply but you will need one once you're in the finalist phase in order for funds to actually be distributed to you. For going again for the eligibility you need to have one committed development partner relationship, we will go into what a development partner relationship looks like in just a minute here. Funds must be allocated among your tour sites within two years of receiving the grants. You must be able to fulfill the requirements and reports that go with the report with the grant if awarded. Returning artists, meaning folks who have received NTP funding before NTP specifically, all NTP supported presentations have to have been completed, and it has to have been one year since the last NTP supported presentation by completed and last presentation on our end the funds need to have been allocated and distributed to the locations and to the grantee. That was a lot of information we do have the Q&A coming up after. Types of projects not considered unfortunately we cannot fund everything. So, these are the projects that are not eligible and will not be considered projects focused solely on children and family theater. Your project can engage children and can engage families and many of our projects have in the past but they cannot be focused solely on children and family theater. Projects by solo artists. This is when we get questions about because this is a co-equal devised process, we are totally okay with one single person being on stage as long as the other folks generating the actual project or co-equal creators and partners in the work and performance. Projects must be based by lead artists who are here in the United States so any projects developed by lead artists who are not US based as defined in our criteria section are not eligible. Any projects that do not meet NTP definitions of devised, ensemble or tour slash touring, you can get more information in the criteria section of our website. Next, I would like to go over NIFA's EDIA values statement with you all. NIFA values an equitable, diverse and inclusive world which we interpret as all people having fair access to the tools and resources they need to realize creative and community endeavors. We acknowledge structural and equities that have excluded individuals and communities from opportunities based on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, age, geography, culture, nation of origin and language and we strive to counter those inequities in our work. NIFA believes in a diverse and thriving world and art sector and as part of that one of the values that is not yet captured in our written statement is the importance of intersectionality in individuals, art makers and our experiences of art and theater. In the spirit of transparency, which for me does align with having an equity, diversity, intersectionality and accessibility stance. We are in, we are heading into a process of strategic planning during which we will be continuing to evaluate our values statements and practices. So this statement may evolve and change even over the course of this application cycle. Now to the stuff you all really want to hear. I'm going to move into the criteria specific to NTP creation and touring grants. I will read this word for word because this is what you will see when you go to fill out an application. And the questions that are asked in the application derived directly from these criteria. And also what our advisors will be looking at when they score your application. This criteria is available on our website and we suggest you have that open as you fill out the application criteria one NTP creation and touring grants support the creation development of us touring of new artists led devised ensemble theater works. To illustrate excellence in the artist practice. NTP uses the following definitions in consideration of grant applications ensemble, a group of two or more people committed to working together over time to develop a distinct practice and body of work devised. This is a process of co creation and joint discovery that prioritizes generative artists, which may include but does not prioritize playwrights and directors. It is iterative and results in original work for tour and touring sharing of the work in multiple locations or formats, including in person performance, virtual performance or hybrid modalities. NTP creation and touring grants support work that contributes to the cultural aesthetic informed diversities of today's theater. In other words, why this project, why this ensemble and why now. They demonstrate meaningful partnerships with organizations that are involved in the development performance promotion engagement and or touring of the new work. They center engagement with and for communities and audiences via the works process and performance. They also demonstrate a commitment to sharing the work with communities in the US via a tour. And one big question that we get every year is what is a development partner and a development partner is fundamental to making this work happen. Over the last 13 years that we've been doing this that the stronger the relationship is with the development partner, the more likely it is that the work is going to come together in a way that feels successful for the artists. So development partners provide a variety of resources during the development of a project, and sometimes continue that support into the touring of the work. Additionally, open ended about what can constitute a development partner. So some ways that a development partner might contribute to the work is through providing residency space, virtual platforms, audience for work in progress and other offerings, whether that be virtual or in person administrative guidance or support marketplace advocacy for planning assistance, leveraging of additional funds for the project, and much more. So I think a question to ask yourself is, what are the gaps in my application and how can organizations outside of our ensemble fill in those gaps and give our project the greatest chance of success. The development partner is not required to present the finished work at any time, though many do. It is understood that the need and level of assistance between development partners and artists varies from artists to artists and project to project. But NTP believes strongly that partnerships greatly benefit the development and distribution of devised ensemble theater. And something important to remember is that the development partner does not necessarily mean a presenter or a presenter, or even an arts organization. It can mean an incubator space, a service organization that works in a community you're hoping to reach, or any number of organizations. The next thing we're going to discuss is our timeline. So the timeline just acknowledging has shifted for the first time it is open in the summer. Usually this has happened in the winter in the past so we recognize that this is a shift. The current timeline is as follows July 2023 inquiry application is available on our website that is the phase we are currently in it is also known as the preliminary application phase. So July 27 2023 at 1159pm Eastern is the inquiry application deadline. That means the application that is currently available on our website is due in fall at this time and no later fall 2023. And by fall 2023 it really is later fall early winter applicants are notified of preliminary decisions. The finalists are then invited to submit in the full proposal round, also known as the finalist round and are paired with an NTP advisor who serves as the projects advisor during full proposal development. The final deadline for the final application is February 14 2024 at 1159pm Eastern to be clear on those last two points. And by fall 2023 through February 2024. That is the finalist round, and folks will be notified if they're moving on to the finalist round, following our first panel meeting during which our advisor panel will be selecting the project that move forward. This panel is referred to NTP advisors several times. So, who are these people making these decisions. NTP advisor panel is composed of 12 individuals representing presenters producing theaters festivals and service organizations they are theater artists. They are scholars, community leaders and former grantees. The selection of advisors take into account geography, gender, cultural and racial equity and includes new and established leaders in the field. These advisors guide the project selection and serve as consultants and ambassadors for the program. The final application process so again that will be following our panel meeting in November advisors provide critical guidance to the applicants in proposal preparation and toward development finalists will work with an assigned advisor on their final application. This advisor panel aligns with NEPA's EDIA commitments by shifting all four decision making from the purview of staff to an intersectional and rotating committee of field leaders. A list of our current advisors can be viewed on our website. I would like to offer here the note that that list of advisors will be shifting in coming weeks as some of our advisors rotate off and new folks rotate on. Okay, so now we are going to get into the nitty gritty of how to actually fill out an application on our website. So you can access your application from NEPA.org that's nefa.org by clicking grants and programs and navigating to the NTP creation and touring grant page, which looks like this. This is also where we list our criteria and post links to the question and answer session and office hour sign ups. So we recommend spending some time on this page. And we definitely recommend looking through the criteria and the eligibility before you start an application. From here, all the relevant links will be on the right. In addition to accessing your application from here, you can sign up for an office hour spot to talk with the NTP staff one on one or preview the application narrative questions without having to actually start an application. When you are ready to work on the grant, you can click apply now to start a new application or resume my application if you have already started an application and need to return to it. If you use the apply now button, you will be starting an entirely new application and none of the information you previously entered will be there. So once you have started an application and saved it, you should always use the return to your grant application button. So working either apply now or resume my application will take you to our grant portal login, which looks like this. From here, if you've used NEPA's portal before you can go ahead and log in. If you haven't filled out a NEPA grant in the last few years, you may need to create a new account. Just to note about that, I think about three years ago we upgraded our grant portal, but unfortunately the user accounts from our old portal do not work on the new one. So if you find that your old login info from before 2019 isn't working, that's probably why. If you have any questions about that you can always contact the NTP staff directly. Particularly you should contact me about questions with the portal, I'll share my contact info, all of our contact info at the end of this slideshow. And as you're creating your account, keep in mind that the system will not let you use your email as a username. So just keep track of whatever username you use, if you lose track of it, again email me I can look that up for you.  And once you create a new account or sign in with your previous login, it will take you to the grant application. And this is what the application will look like. So as you're filling this out, please remember to save as much as you can. If your computer crashes in the middle of an application and you lose information, we unfortunately can't do anything to help retrieve that so please please remember to save. I think we've all been there where you lose a project halfway through, and it's extremely frustrating. So you'll be required to hit save before moving on to the next tab of each page. Once you save, if there are required fields you haven't filled out the system will give you an alert which will show up at the top of the page. If you have opened an application form but don't have time to finish it in that one sitting you can enter project title and save the document with just that field filled out. Once you have saved the application with the title, you can always go back to the application form where you sign into the online portal and hit the return to my grant application button, and it should be there just how you left it. Once you're filling out the narrative questions, we highly recommend working in a word processor, as opposed to working directly in the application, as this will help with formatting and you won't be at risk of losing your work if your internet goes out or anything like that it's just a more steady consistent way of working we found that being said if you're working in a word processor be aware that things like italics and bold will not appear in the application. You can paste it into the portal. So just note that formatting things like that will not be pasted over. When you're returning to your application. There's, it takes you to a kind of confusing page. So once you sign in, it will take you to a page that looks like this. And our system automatically separates grant form into three categories requests inquiries and reports. This application the preliminary application we refer to as an inquiry. So in order to return to your application, you will need to click inquiry on the left side of the screen, and then you should see it pop up there. If you wish to review the narrative questions beforehand, they are available on our website, as Derek showed you. All of our questions are designed to give our advisors a good representation of your work and project. Those questions for the inquiry application are. Please describe the proposed new work. You'll have about 2500 characters for that. Describe your devising development process and how this project meets the NTP definitions of devised and ensemble theater. That's 1500 characters. Please describe what excellence means for this project as defined by your artistic practice. What is your overall desired impact for the project. Please provide any other information you think would be important for the advisors to have to fairly assess your application. Again that is another 1500 characters. Thank you to the collaborators and creative team. How does this project contribute to the cultural aesthetic and form diversities of today's theater. In other words, why this project, why this ensemble, and why now. This is section five, the key benchmarks in development and estimated schedule of completion. Briefly describe your relationship with the listed development partners and how they will contribute to the success of the project through development performance engagement promotion and or touring as defined in the NTP criteria. This project is about communities and audiences this project is being made with and for and how you envision connecting with them. Also, as you are answering these questions, please consider that while some advisors may be familiar with your work. Most will not please complete your application with this in mind without assumptions of what the advisors may or may not know. The element of your application is the video work sample requirement for this first round of application, you can submit work samples from any streaming platform you like. That said, video and YouTube links have seems to work best and with the most consistency, but you're also welcome to use Google Drive Dropbox or whatever works best for you. Keep in mind that the final application you will need to submit a downloadable work sample, but you don't need to worry about this for the preliminary application. If the video is password protected. Please remember to include the password in the application. Please also note that NTP advisors will be watching these videos privately and on their own devices. If you have access to video clips with subtitles we encourage you to use those. Keep in mind that if the audio is low quality or includes unintelligible dialogue, the advisors may miss important details. Next, advisors will be reviewing the application on their own time between when the application closes in September and the panel meeting is in November. It is really important that you do not take these videos down between when you submit the application and when the advisors need to discuss the preliminary applications. The same thing is true for passwords. It's really important that if you submit it without a password, you don't add password protection because we won't have access to that or don't pull it down. A little bit more information about the work samples themselves. As part of your application, you will be asked to submit at least one video work sample, or you can submit to shorter work samples. One or two, the total combined time for the videos can be no more than three minutes long. In other words, you could send in one three minute clip, or you could send in two one and a half minute clips, but you should not send in two three minute clips because that would be a total of six minutes. While we wish we could allow longer submissions, the advisors do need to be able to go through all of the preliminary application, so we do need to limit the length. If your clips go over the time limit, please include clearly labeled few times. When you are submitting your work sample, there is a spot to explain the sample and this is a great place to write any information that you hope the advisors will keep in mind as they review your sample. For example, if you are using a sample from before the pandemic, you could explain in this area how your work has changed or how you see it changing. If you have specific questions about this, we encourage you to sign up for an office hour session with the NTP team so we can discuss the specifics of your application. As a general rule of thumb, your work sample does not need to show the work for which you are applying, but should show a recent work from within at least the last four years. The Pfizer panelists will be watching these samples to get a better idea of what to expect from your project. And so we encourage you to include a clip that connects to the proposed project in some meaningful way, if you are unable to send a useful clip from the project. Work samples are an excellent way to fill in gaps in your application or convey elements of your work that is difficult to put into words. One of the few restrictions we put into place for our video samples is that promotional videos and video montages are not accepted. So if something has been built as a promotional video or as a commercial, it is not. It doesn't need our criteria and by video montages we mean don't submit a three minute slideshow of still photos or gifts. It does need to be three total minutes of actual video content. That brings us so I had sort of jumbled around my info so I'm just going to give a second for folks to read this slide, because this is the first slide I was talking through. Great to all of our grantees look. And then second to last slide is our contact us information. So it is incredibly important to us that you bring us your questions during your preliminary application process, and I strongly encourage you to bring us your questions sooner, rather than later things like office hours are available on a first come first serve basis. So we want to be able to help you give us enough time to give you time. So you can reach us via phone or email, and you can also schedule office hours from our website the link to do that will be up following this meeting, and I'm posting it here, you can go ahead and schedule a preliminary office hours session. If you do ask that if you are reaching out please reach out to the name listed first and last Derek shorts and Lailani Ricardo team I'm realizing we have my name misspelled on this slide. There's an oh at the end of my name. The email address is spelled correctly though so you can go ahead and copy it from there before reaching out to Peter, who will be on intermittent leave this summer and early fall. Again, you can email or call. We strongly encourage before doing that that you fully review the landing page on our website, and you can also sign up directly for office hours for one on one calls. So we're going to just throw up our final slide here as I thank you all for joining us and always thank you to our funders the melon foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation on behalf of NTP team which is myself Derek short and Peter Sullivan. Thank you for joining us today. We're going to shift into a Q amp a mode for folks who have not done a webinar before there is not the functionality for attendees to turn on their cameras the only cameras that will be able to turn on our panelists but you can use the q amp a function at the bottom of your screen to submit questions, and you can use the chat. If you have difficulty with typing and need to ask your question verbally please raise your hand so that I can work on getting you on needed. I didn't realize that the old had dropped off of your name. You know it wasn't wrong the last time we use that slide. So I think we edited something. So I'm looking at the question and answers we already do have some questions listed. I, the first question we, we addressed a little bit, which is how do you define children's theater and why is it ineligible for consideration in redefine children's theater as theater that is focused specifically on children and family theater. We don't want to say no, you can't have that as part of your project, but at the time that we were given the funds to start this branch program we were told specifically. This was not about children's and children and family theater. So that is one of the restrictions that we have on who we can give money to. So again, it might, it cannot be solely focused on family and children's theater but it can include that. I'm also seeing a question that says can a development partner also be the fiscal sponsor. And I think the answer is yes and no the development partner can be the fiscal sponsor, but they shouldn't only be the fiscal sponsor. So we don't consider fiscal sponsorship to be a considerable development partner. But if you have a development partner that's supporting you in other ways, they can also be your fiscal sponsor. And I have a very similar answer to another question of can a development partner also be a presenting partner. And it's the same answer where you can present your work, but they shouldn't only be presenting your work they should also be assisting in the development of the work. Looking to do you need at least one committed touring partner for preliminary application stage. So if you have a committed touring partner, that is awesome. So what you can do in the preliminary stage is an outline a plan, a narrative of what you anticipate touring looking like that can vary a lot, especially since we do accept hybrid applications and digital tours. And so what a committed touring partner looks like can vary a lot. So you need to articulate how you plan to tour where you plan to tour and roughly when you plan to tour, but you don't need the same level of commitment as you would from a development partner. Answering a question from the same person. This is Leilani speaking the grants are going to be announced in spring of 2024. The grant when it can begin and the subsequent first public production is a little bit in flux, in that it is a creation grant. And so you need to be still actively creating when you apply so you can have something that has started doing some performance before the actual grant is awarded as long as you can demonstrate in your application that there will be meaningful creation happening, not just performance. That's why that's a little bit mushy generally we advise and the strongest applications have the first performance happening within six months of whatever season it's due so we anticipate roughly may late May early June will be announcing so we would anticipate within six months of that the first performance is generally the strongest application. I see another question. Can the requirement that work samples be less than four years old be waived or adjusted with respect to the pandemic disrupting creative trajectories and I think we might have misrepresented that I would say that the four year old. That is more of a guideline or requirement we're not going to say that your work sample is ineligible, because it's more than four years old. We will say that work samples from within the last four years, we have found to be most effective and most beneficial to the application. If all you have is work samples from before for you from more than four years ago, you can definitely go ahead and use them. But if you do have something from within the four last four years that you think meaningfully conveys what your project is trying to accomplish. We have found that to be more effective and more helpful for your application. The important one sorry as questions are submitted it sort of jumps around so they may not be in order. Yes, the criteria of divide ensemble and touring as defined on our website under criteria. So that must meet all three of these bullet points 100% they are the baseline of eligibility, they are the foundational criteria, they are the core non negotiables it must be defies ensemble and tour or touring. I see some other questions sort of around that same one preliminary applications very pretty wildly including in the pandemic. I can offer that in terms of the volume we're anticipating right now. These sessions usually have about 30 or 40 folks that sign up we had 75 sign up for this info session today. So extrapolating from that I would anticipate a smooth 100 preliminary applications, potentially more potentially less because you can edit your application right up until you submit it's really hard for us to gauge. Folks start applications and don't finish them. So that's sort of the best I can give you there. We will be award date so because there are some questions around development timeline I'm going to just circle back to make sure that was clear. We will be awarding the grants. In spring 2024 we anticipate that being in late May, or early June. So in terms of your timeline, you will need to have both the creation and the touring, I can offer that we have some projects that are still touring, or still using their touring funds now that predate the beginning of the coven pandemic those tours are ongoing that circumstance has led to the creation timeline being extended, a slightly more common timeline is anywhere from 18 months to about three years, but projects take the time that the work takes the important part is the creation and the touring have to both be part of the process. I just took a few because they were near each other so I'll shift over to to one of you. Can we have multiple development partners or mentioned that in the application absolutely. It is very, very helpful to your application to have that Derek you wanted to add something. Oh no I was just clicking that you were answering that sorry yeah I was just trying to keep up with what you were saying. And if a project was a finalist in the national dance project but did not get a final award is that project still eligible for NTP. Yes, absolutely. However, I will make it may try to make this clear, we recognize the intersectionality between dance and theater. And this is however a theater application. So if you don't at least explain how it falls into theater. It will not be seriously considered. That is, we have had applications from folks that we actually knew were dance theater, who never mentioned the word theater once in their application. And it was reviewed, and the question was asked, isn't this a dance application. So you need to be very, very specific about how this falls into into the theater role. That was actually two questions. Very bouncy. Can touring happen both inside the US and outside of the US. Yes, it can happen. The lead artists, the ensemble actually submitting the application must be based in the United States. We not only will accept applications both inside and outside of the US we have had several folks receive the grant, including one of our current grantees, Yankee Bayesian. Which is touring both inside and outside of the US. The one thing that I do want to note for folks who are interested in an international tour is we are the national theater project and so how our touring funds the portion that doesn't go to the creation of the work but the actual sharing of the work. The allocation of those funds become slightly more challenging if the majority of your partners are international. That means your national stops, and I do encourage folks to review our definition of national because NTP does recognize all of the territories so I have had folks ask me recently, if that counts as an international tour and they're actually talking about a US tour.  Just to clarify to add on to what Leilani said is that the tour. The money's, the tour can happen both inside and outside of the US but NTP tour subsidy can only be used for the US portion of that tour as defined by our website. I see a question, how many hours are anticipated for filling out the inquiry section. And honestly, I don't know how much I can answer this because I think everyone works at really different speeds. I will say those questions that we went over the narrative questions, we anticipate that being the hardest part of the application. That is where you will spend most of your time the rest of it is kind of simple answers which shouldn't take too much time. You know yourself best. So, figure out how long it takes for you to answer those questions I think everyone is really different and it also depends on the capacity of your organization. I see a question what is the development timeline after a project is selected. Are there stipulations about when work begins, premiere date, etc. And this is another one where for better for worse the answer is kind of it depends. The one requirement that I think way Lonnie talked about is that at the time that we award the grant, there needs to still be considerable development on the project happening. So, usually but not always that means that the work premiers after the grant is awarded. We have given this grant to projects that had already premiered, but those were projects that were doing considerable development between tour sites. Oftentimes they were site specific work that was really redefining itself as it toward. So it's not a hard rule that it can't have premiered before the grant application, or before the grant is awarded. But if the work premiers before the time that the grant is awarded, there will be some level, there will be some burden to show that there is still development happening. And then we have funded work like that. The other the other dates that we have are really guidelines not requirements. We do require that the work that you tell us where the work will tour or where you will use your funds your touring funds within two years. And that every project really is different and has a different timeline. So, we have found that work that will be ready to premiere within the next six months to a year, tend to be the most competitive. But again, projects that have different needs require funding at different times in their life cycle, and our advisors are very aware of that in the panel process. So there's a question here does opera fit into the term theater. You will notice that we do not define theater. And that is because we all come from different traditions certainly in my tradition dance theater and music would not be separated out from each other so. Yes, opera can fit into this program and in fact. I'm very proud of the fact that we have supported parable of the sewer, as well as Wayne shorter and Esperanza spaldings, if it's an IA. So, yes, opera is definitely theater. And you will have to talk about it within your application. We're also looking at the level of engagement with presenting partners audience. Peter, can I interrupt you for just one second to add on to that. Absolutely. That when talking about opera, or talking about dance slash theater, or talking about any discipline that you have a question about.  The three immovable are devised ensemble and tour or touring. So it needs to be a devised opera devised by an ensemble that is going to tour. That is the, that is the fourth thing so there have been a couple questions on this specific genre or subgenre of fit. The answer is, yes, as long as you as the creators sincerely believe it is theater, and it meets those three specific things that I've just I've seen a couple of sort of genre questions and that's going to be the answer, whatever word you sub for opera. Absolutely. Some really simple ones. How many tour sites locations do you need for the grant. In the past, we have had a general, I wouldn't say requirement but preference for three performances within at least two different states. However, we're also talking about some areas count as a tour within themselves. For example, if you were trying to tour Alaska. That would be a tour in and of itself the amount of travel you have to do to get across Alaska is the same as if you were traveling within the contiguous 48. So, some, some tours could be Hawaii specific, for example, again, the difficulties of traveling amongst the islands in Hawaii are tremendous. For tour sites. I would aim for three, three tours three sharing two states at a minimum, if you're, let's see what's the if the proposed project has some funding through another grant does that disqualified for this application. Our grant cannot support the entirety of the project, we hope that you that you will be able to leverage this grant and get other funding we've seen that happen many, many times that by getting the NTP grant. It has enabled more investment in the project. Let's see what I had wanted to answer, which is if we have a group of artists working together for the first time. Should we submit samples of our individual work, even if it wasn't necessarily devised, or specifically representative of the kind of work we're looking to make with this grant. So this is challenging in that the goal of the work sample is to exemplify the project and what that is going to look like. So if you don't have let's say there are five artists, you don't necessarily have to be demonstrating all five of you working simultaneously. I will say that if you submit several, you know, small chunks of individual artists that isn't necessarily going to convey an ensemble. So this may not be what's implied in this question, but work samples do not have to be polished performances, they can be polished performances and we are happy to accept polished performances. But if you feel it most significantly represents what's happening with your new ensemble to show a high quality rehearsal video, that is completely acceptable if that is, you know, to demonstrate your devising process. We want to see what the work is going to be. And there's no one answer for exactly how that's going to look best for your group. To the questions for if there are a difference between an ensemble and a creative team. Sorry, before you move on, can I just say one more thing about what you were just talking about. This is not directly answering the question but for artists who are working together for the first time I also just want to point you to our definition of ensemble which does stipulate a group of artists working together over time to create a body of work, which does not exclude people who are working together for the first time. For artists who are working together for the first time, you do need to show that there's some intention of working together beyond this one project. Because by our definition of ensemble, it's groups of people who are creating multiple pieces of work two or more pieces of work together as a group. That ties in perfectly to the question of is there a difference between an ensemble and a creative team to answer that I have put our definitions of ensemble divides and tour slash touring into the chat, and I will read them out loud. An ensemble a group of two or more people committed to working together over time to develop a distinct practice and body of work devise a process of co creation and joint discovery that prioritizes generative artists which may include, but does not prioritize play or directors is iterative and results in original work tour slash touring is sharing of the work in multiple communities, locations or format, including in person performance virtual performance or hybrid modality. Creative team doesn't have the same kind of consistent definition which is why we provide our definition. If your creative team matches this definition of ensemble and is devising in this way. Yes, if by creative team you mean a traditional Western proscenium style team where there is a director and a playwright and a sex designer and they are distinctive entities who have more creative authority than the actors who are sort of hired as employees and that is a different thing. So, again, I can't define for anybody on this call or anywhere else how you would define your creative team ensembles devised tour and touring. We are at a time check. So, he didn't Derek maybe if you each want to take one more really quickly. I will drop the in the chat right now I'm dropping the link to our web page. I think some of these questions are in the creation and touring in the eligibility and criteria section. And you all do have. I have already shared the link to have a meeting with us. I can really quickly answer these two questions of can the fiscal sponsor be a university answer is yes. And are you able to submit a different work sample for the second application deadline. Again, the answer is yes. And we actually recommend using a different work sample for the second round. The last question remaining is the level of engagement with the presenting partners audience, how in depth should the engagement be specifically if the institutions do not have a relationship to your target audience. That's a very difficult one that often is the relationship between you and your presenting partner, and what they expect you to do and what you expect them to do, and that should be made very, very clear as you are talking about it. If they're interested in presenting you there must be a reason for that. And so I think it is a conversation that needs to be ongoing. What we have found is that community sourced community engaged community powered work is the work that is most successful within the NTP program. And so they're presenting partners out there who under understand your work and and can help you with that engagement. If you don't plan on having that kind of a presenting partner, but have a community partner. That is also acceptable as a presenting partner, a community partner can be a presenting partner. Suggest that you talk to the NTP team and ask questions about those partners and that relationship to get a more clear understanding of this it really is a project by project issue. And we've, we have seen all kinds of iterations of presenting partners and we're happy to help with that. Before we log off for the afternoon I just want to say a couple of quick specific thank yous. Thank you to Nikki who is our current ASL interpreter on the bottom of my screen. Thank you to Josh who was our initial ASL interpreter. Thank you to Ariana who is our captioner and to found a solution for us. Thank you to the who you all would not have seen or heard, but who is on the staff at how will round and has been helping me to facilitate this whole thing functionally as tech backup. I want to thank all of you for attending and for your patience as we tried to get things up and running in the most functional and accessible way. And thank you as always to my team. Final reminders, everything that we discussed in the slides is available on our website the criteria eligibility, the definition, the deadlines, even the timelines when do I have to have the project touring, etc. All on the website. You can also contact us via email or phone or schedule a 30 minute preliminary office hours session with either myself or Derek. Thank you all for joining us this afternoon. Thank you for your applications whether they are in process for forthcoming and thank you for the art that you put out into the world, we are all the better for it. Have a good afternoon. Happening. Thank you all. Thank you.


Hello everyone, today we'll be talking about a fantasy action film called Along with the Gods. Be ready for some spoilers ahead. Somewhere in the population center of Korea, a large building is burning in flames while a firefighter named Han jumps out from the building, trying to save a civilian's life. His rope is burned by the raging heat, causing him to fall quickly onto the ground, without landing on the safety cushion. His entire life flashes before his eyes, but surprisingly, the man is able to wake up after saving the little girl from being killed. He gets up and rushes towards the girl's family, trying to see if the victim is hurt, but no matter how hard he talks, no one seems to be responding. Suddenly, he hears a voice calling his name from afar, and sees two people in suits smiling towards him amidst the chaos. Han tries telling them to step away from the falling debris, but soon notices the firefighters trying to save a man who looks exactly like the main character himself. The woman named Choon tells Han that he's a paragon before he died, and they're here to assist him through the seven trials of judgments. The other guardian, called Mack, tells him that their leader is waiting for them before the gates towards the trials, and they have to go there right now. Han has trouble taking all this information in, and slowly walks away while looking at his comrades mourning over his dead body. He screams that he can't die right now as he wants to see his mother, but the man's body began levitating in the air towards the giant portal. Han continues shouting about seeing his mother, while the guardians are touched that he's so caring towards his parent even after death. They arrive in a different dimension where thousands of people are heading towards the gates of judgment, and Han meets the guardian leader, called Rim, who's helped 47 souls to reincarnate in the past century. When the leader congratulates Han for being a paragon, the man looks away and declines, stating that he's not a good person at all. They enter through the gates of judgment, but are teleported to a nightmarish place full of lava called the Mountain of Murder. Mack is shocked to see their location and immediately questions Han if he's killed someone in his life, but the man denies having ever done something so terrible. Rim explains that causing someone's death indirectly through inaction is also judged by the trials, which may be the reason why they're here.  The people who are punished try desperately to climb out, but they continuously burn inside the sea of flames. The prosecutors begin the trial by accusing Han of not saving one of his colleagues when he had the chance to do so, which eventually led to the man's death. They demand that Han suffers inside the lava pit for five years in order to atone the sin of not saving his friend. Rim defends the man by requesting to closer examine on what really happened at the incident. Apparently, Han did try to desperately save his friend at the scene, but they couldn't move the stone that the firefighter was trapped under. After realizing the hopeless situation, his colleague told him to leave and save the other civilians instead. Because of Han's decision, he was able to save eight people that night. Rim argues that the man's heroism should be taken into consideration when judging his decision to leave his friend behind. Seeing the man's bravery at helping others, the judge decides to exonerate him from the charges and allow him to pass on to the next trials. Although Han has won the first hearing, he's greatly affected by the reminder of his colleague's death. He demands to know why the guardians are helping him as he doesn't believe himself to be a paragon.  If the three are able to help 49 souls to go through the trials and reincarnate within the century, they can also become humans as well. They eventually arrive at the trial of Indolence where Chun explains all the labors that Han has completed. The man has never been lazy throughout his life and always helped others no matter where he went. This even means knocking over a beehive and subjecting his whole team to terrible stings or rescuing some grumpy cat on the edge of a building and breaking the owner's Lamborghini with his head. The judge was so moved by Han's contributions that she orders the prosecutors to immediately build a statue in honor of the paragon. However, when she inquires about why the man wanted to live his life so fully, Han replied that the reason was simply for money. Upon hearing the man's answer, the judge quickly changes her verdict and tells the prosecutors to send Han into the punishment where a giant machine chases after all the people guilty of Indolence, crushing their bones and feeding them to the fishes. The guardians try their best to help their defendant and begs the goddess to look closer at the man's life.  Han worked so hard that he often disregarded his own health and his desire for money is therefore not due to selfishness. After realizing the man's true motivations, the goddess finds that Han is not guilty as he only wanted to help his family. The group quickly boards the boat that will take them to the next location, but before they can celebrate, they notice that they're being pursued by numerous monsters. The team unleashes their weapons and tries their best to defend against the creatures. They're able to defeat many of the enemies by cutting them into pieces, but the captain eventually gets knocked over the ship and barely hangs on. Mac is forced to defend the ship all by himself while giving his leader the chance to recover. In the final moment, Mac strikes a large stone pillar that causes the rocks to fall, finally saving them from the monster's pursuit. The man explains that this can only happen because the family of Han has died and became a vengeful spirit. In order to stop other monsters from pursuing them in the future, Rym decides to visit Han's family in order to find out the truth about what happened. He goes to Han's residence and notices that the mother is clearly alive. This can only mean that it was the brother Su who died and turned into a vengeful spirit. The evil aura tries to run away while the guardian chases closely behind. Rym tries to stop the spirit by catching and using his weapon, but the ghost manages to avoid the attacks from behind. The two eventually clashes together and knocks the guardian away, allowing the spirit to disappear as Rym looks desperately for his prey. The guardian follows the trail to a military base where he notices the soldiers talking about Su and referring to him as the deserter. What's even more curious is that the captain and one of his fellow soldiers is clearly hiding something. Rym disguises as a colonel of the army and proceeds to question the captain about Su, accusing him of killing the man. Surprisingly, the captain begins blackmailing the guardian out of fear which further confirms that he's responsible for the brother's death. On the other side, Han is being questioned by the Goddess of the Seat and accused of writing numerous false wills and testaments for his colleague which he failed to save earlier. He gave these writings to the man's daughter, lying to her by pretending to be the girl's father. The Goddess immediately orders the man to be tied up and prepares to punish him by cutting off his tongue. Luckily, Rym is able to connect to his team through telepathy and argues for Han's actions. It turns out that he also wrote false letters to his mother, lying about how great his life is and how wealthy he became. Rym argues that these are all attempts to comfort the people that he cares about by providing them hope that reality can offer and allowing them to live on. Upon realizing that Han did all this in order to provide others a reason to live on, the deity forgives the man's crimes as the intentions were never to harm. After the trial, Rym lies to Han and tells him that his families are doing fine but quickly informs the team about the truth regarding Han's brother. Rym goes back in time to see what really happened on the night of Sue's death and realizes that his comrade Don shot the man by accident after switching off the safety. Don called their captain right away and instead of trying to save the dying man, the soldier decides to bury Sue and hide the evidence so that his promotion would not be soiled. Rym looks at the body of Sue and realizes in shock that the man was actually not dead, forcing him to remember the memories from his past where his father was also buried alive.  Thankfully, Han's profession as a firefighter means that he'll not be judged here but instead be allowed to move on to the next location. During the ride inside the cable car, it's revealed that the guardians all have their memories erased except for their leader, Rym. Mack tries to stop his teammate from revealing any more about their limitations but accidentally informs Han that his brother is in fact the vengeful spirit. Upon realizing the truth, the man's unstable psyche shakes the entire room and breaks the cable car, nearly dropping his guardians below. But Han is able to pull himself together in the last moment and offers to help his teammates. The three eventually arrives in the hell of betrayal where a beautiful goddess judges the people who betrayed their loved ones by trapping them in a mirror and shattering the victims. Luckily, Han was a paragon in his lifetime and did not betray anyone allowing him to move on safely from this location as well. At the same time, Rym is able to find the vengeful spirit in the nightclub where he's trying to kill one of the soldiers who buried him alive. The guardian chases after Soo right away and they fight continuously in the air while flying through the city. Rym is able to capture the spirit by setting a trap and tying him onto the building using a magical rope. The guardian tells the spirit that he needs to forgive his killers in order to be reborn or else he'll be destroyed forever. But this only serves to remind Soo about how he was buried alive and betrayed by his best friends causing him to scream rage and break free by creating a massive shockwave. On the other side, after drinking numerous amounts of alcohol, Dong has decided to give the location of the body to Soo's mother unable to bear with the guilt any longer. The woman opens the map and finally sees the location of his youngest son while Soo watches everything from behind his mother. The vengeful spirit goes to Rym and tells the guardian that he has decided to forgive Dong after seeing the soldier's guilt and how the location of the body was given to the mother. Soo begs the guardian to act like a medium so that he may talk to Dong for the last time promising that he'll go through the trials afterwards. The spirit talks to the man and tells the soldier that he forgives him and to not waste any more new tears on something from the past.  The man falls into the massive opening and crashes into a giant rock but Mac is able to catch his teammate and land beside Hong. However, Hong slides towards the two and knocks them over by accident causing them to free fall once again towards the bottom of the pit. Mac rushes towards the two while Hong is able to grab the girl and tries to save her from the crash just like before he died. Surprisingly, their fall is quickly stopped at the last moment after reaching the bottom. The trial of violence begins and the prosecutors accuse Hong of beating up his brother in high school. This action was especially unforgivable as the young boy was suffering from malnutrition due to how poor the family was at the time. In fact, Hong never sought out forgiveness after the fight as he ran off away from his family the very next day and never went home ever since. The judge decides quickly that the man is guilty of violence towards his own family and plans to send him into a pit where people are constantly hit by rocks as punishment. Seeing that Hong is about to be sentenced, Chun quickly demands the judge to hold off the conviction and look at the final trial together with the current one as they're closely related. This play is very risky as it requires the guardians to forfeit their powers in the afterlife if Hong was found to be guilty on the next trial. Unfortunately, the guardians quickly learn the truth about what happened on that night of the fight.  Su tried to stop his brother immediately which caused Hong to eventually drop the pillow and begin punching the young boy continuously with anger.  The only way he believed that can end their suffering was through death and nothing else. This is also why he felt extremely guilty afterwards and ran away from home never returning to his family ever again. After hearing this, the guardians become hopeless as they realize that there is no way they can win the trials now especially in the final hell of filial impiety. At the same time, Rimm is trying to bring Su towards his body so that the spirit can finally begin the journey towards reincarnation as well. When they arrive at the military camp, Su is surprised to see that his mother is here begging the soldiers to bring her to her son's body. The captain of the army sees this and rushes towards the woman ripping her son into pieces and pushing her onto the ground causing her to faint in the exertion. Su sees that his mother is being attacked by his killer and becomes engulfed in rage quickly turning into the vengeful spirit that he was before. He breaks free from the restraints and grabs onto the guardian throwing the man away using tremendous force. Su's fury becomes so intense that he turns into a giant tornado engulfing all the soldiers in the area and opening a gateway towards the afterlife itself. The vengeful spirit tosses everything around and creating massive chaos while Rimm tries desperately to save all the people from being killed. Luckily, Mac is able to charge into the living world through the portal and launches at Su breaking away the giant statue and stunning the enemy. Rimm takes the chance and charges in as well capturing Su using a magical robe and finally putting a stop to the rampage. Meanwhile, the trial of Han begins at the other end as King Yomra himself decides to be the judge for the case. The deity charges the man with attempting to murder his own mother and beating his brother in such a desperate time. The king also reveals that Han's mother actually knew about her son's attempt to kill her but remained silent and kept all this tragedy inside her heart which makes the man's crime even worse.  Suddenly, the entire realm begins shaking as a voice begins speaking to Han's mother. It turns out that Rimm has used his power to allow Su to speak to his mother in a dream and the son apologizes for his brother. Su tells the woman that Han has worked non-stop for 15 years in order to support them ever since that night after feeling guilty for what he did. Surprisingly, the mother reveals that she has forgiven her son a long time ago and apologizes herself for not being able to provide for her children. Han hears this and falls into tears while the king himself has been moved by their display of family. The deity decides that he can no longer charge Han for his crimes as the victim has forgave him a long time ago thus allowing the man to be reincarnated. Han hears this and bows towards Chu thanking the guardians for helping him through the journey before disappearing into the bright lights. Back in the mortal realm, Rimm has decided to bring Su as their 49th reincarnation planning to achieve their deal for the king so that they can be reborn as well.  So what do you guys think about this movie? Let me know in the comments below. And if you like my video, please press like and subscribe for more. I'll see you guys next time.


2000-2004 saw a significant increase in the proportion of childhood diarrhea hospitalizations caused by rotavirus, resulting in an estimated 611,000 rotavirus-related deaths according to recent World Health Organization estimates. This article was authored by Amesh Deeparashur, Christopher J. Gibson, Joseph Espersee, and others.


And then at 4.45 we'll start one hour of poster session. So from 4.45 to let's say six o'clock poster session, and then 6.30 you are all invited by a sponsor dinner from IAA and ICDP. Okay, we had a very heavy lecture previous one. So in this one let's just relax and listen to something that we are currently developing at the IAA. We call it a digital nuclear reactor. It's a data storage toolkit. In the course of the presentation I will explain the philosophy of what we are developing, why we are developing, what will be the uses of this, and eventually we'll make a call if you want to collaborate on this project, we'll be very happy to have you and to join this and collaborate with the IAA in the development of this toolkit. Let me set up the premise here as this will make it very clear that what is the main goal of this digital nuclear reactor, this data storage toolkit that we are developing. In the IAA as it was explained by Vladimir in his very first presentation that we have lots of coordinated research project, which are mainly modeling and simulation exercises. And those of you who have experience in benchmark size or modeling and simulation exercise, you must have seen that you receive the specification document, and then based upon the specification document, you create the model either in a neutronics code or a thermo hydraulic code or structure analysis code or whatever analysis you want to do. As an example, here you can see on the left side that these are the different CRPs that IAA has conducted or is conducting now, it's on EBR2 which is complete, BN600 is complete, Phoenix is also over, and we are starting these two new CFR and FFTF. You will see that the end of every CRP, we publish a document which ideally should have all the information to replicate the exercise. And that's also one of the purpose of IAA to make this document open and public that in case you want to repeat the exercise and do the benchmark, you should just take the document and should be able to do it. Whether people are successful in doing that or not, we don't know yet, it has not been quantified. The idea is that if you are able to store all this information that is required to do the benchmark exercise in a digital format and then we provide it to the participants of the CRP or to the people once the CRP is complete, they should be able to extract all the data and be able to perform the modeling and simulation exercise. Taking this idea into mind, the core concept here is to create a data storage system or a data storage toolkit which will be a universal data storage toolkit, unit storage plus it will have some other features which if and when developed could also support that database. So ideally at the heart of this will be a database and then more peripheral functions could be developed over it. So as a first step, everything should be, we should be able to store in this storage toolkit and then as a second step, we can provide this to the participating organizations during the research project plus provide this to all member states after the CRP is complete because all the data or all the activities that IA does, they are open to all our member states. Then as a third step, once they get this toolkit, now it's up to the participating organization or the user to connect it to their codes and perform modeling and simulation exercise. Currently, this module is let's say under development and it also depends upon what kind of code you are using. So to summarize, it's a complete knowledge preservation and ease of access. That's the main idea behind this. Okay. Moving further, the objective is to provide a universal data storage system and all inclusive database with necessary reactor details required for modeling and numerical simulations. The features which are currently developed or should be developed is that we should be able to store reactor data in a hierarchical manner. I will explain this structure in the coming slides. It provides access to the stored reactor data and standard interface for coupling with the reactor simulation code. It should bring simplicity in terms of code coupling. There is already a module developed for the visualization of the reactor geometry which makes it very easy for troubleshooting or finding if there are any errors in the, let's say in the input deck preparation. It also already has some basic meshing possibilities. Maybe I will explain that also later. It can do some simple thermal expansion calculations which are really become very important for Newtonian calculations and other features which I will explain also during the presentation. So to understand the structure, here you can see that at the heart is the database and then the box is in yellow is something which is already developed or is under development and the box is in gray is something which the user can always develop short interfaces and couple it. So the database could be coupled with any of the reactor thermal analytics code but the interface has to be developed. It can be coupled to neutronics, fuel behavior or structure mechanic codes and various other utilities could be developed over it to support modeling and simulation exercise like visualization, service utilities that are explained like meshing, thermal expansion etc. And we can also have a utility which can create directly an input deck for a particular code which is the current nature of work that I am trying to do. Now let's try to understand how this data storage toolkit is made and what is the architecture behind it. The format that has been chosen is the hierarchical data format which is an open source data format and the beauty of this format is that you can store data in an abstract manner. So whatever idea that you have in mind to store the data, you can store it in that format in the form of groups and data sets. We will see in the next slide how this is done in our particular case. And it can also be used to store and organize large amount of numerical data which is also another requirement for us that we always have the quantity of data that we have in our exercise is always huge. And it's compatible with different programming language so it becomes agnostic in terms of operating systems as well as in terms of different programming languages. The current toolkit is developed on Java but the interfaces could be developed in any language that you like. Data could be stored in multi-dimensional space and be organized in an abstract manner as I said. So here again is the database. The database connected to the graphical user interface which we call the user control center. I'll show you some images of the user control center and then we could link it directly to different codes. Here is the structure of the database. So there is a root and then there is a setup file that is created and the data storage is actually based on the structure of the reactor starting from the pin to the assembly level or let's say starting from the pellet to the assembly level. So an HDF file which is called as an object can be considered as a container. So it's a container which in terms of HDF file is defined as a group that holds a variety of heterogeneous data objects called as data sets. So here you can see the legend that all these files are groups and then we have different data sets. So you can see here that we can define different sub-assemblies like fissile, blanket, control rod, et cetera. We can define different pins in different data sets and combine them in one group. We can also define let's say the actual level of the different sub-assembly which are called as the sub-assembly setup here. Could be fissile or a blanket or a control rod. And then all these groups are combined together to form a setup file and then it can be arranged to form a complete core map. I will show you in the coming slides how with the help of this simple data sets we can form a complete reactor core. We call it a core setup file and also the core mapping file. So I call it an intelligent database that understands the design philosophy of a reactor. So it will follow the very logic of the nuclear power plant or a reactor. So here you can see that starting from the pin to the whole core how the data is arranged. So in the database there is a possibility to define till the level of the pin going from that to the assembly, assembly to the fuel pin, to the fuel pin to the assembly and to the whole structure of the core. And the other benefit of organizing data in this format is that for example, if you want to change one parameter you don't have to change it in the every code that you are using. As I said the idea is make a central database and then connect different codes. You have to change some property or some geometric or physical property of some part of the reactor. You just change in the data set or you just change at one point or one particular place in the database and all the changes will be reflected in the whichever codes you are using. The toolkit is also designed in such a way that it links all the data sets through a common file. So the other benefit is that as everything is interlinked so one change will again be reflected to the whole database. So that's what I say. The idea is to make an intelligent database. As I said, we have already developed integrated user control center over it. It aids in visualization and provides a graphical user interface to its applications. The reactor setup file could be made with the user control center and the graphical viewer. So there is a graphical viewer where you can input the data and create the data sets. The structure of the setup file is made as explained in the previous slide. As I said, through all the levels of the reactor as you understand the reactor yourself. And then the data is broken into meaningful data sets based on the parts of the reactor so that the changes done at one part could easily be transferred up the hierarchy. Here you can see that just to give you a glimpse of the control center, how it looks. It starts with a basic set of template and that could be modified. So we have already defined few geometries and few data sets. At least for the fast reactor systems we can derive more geometries from this basic data set. There are other geometries which I am currently developing. So as to make an holistic approach that all the basic geometries are there and the derived geometries could be obtained from the existing data sets. However, it is very flexible and you can develop your own geometries in this as well. Derived ones are easy but if you want to make a completely new type of geometry you have to go to the source code and make the changes there. Again, the data input is as simple as an Excel file. So we have an HDF file viewer which is embedded into the user control center. You can simply type the data in this as you can do in an Excel file or copy and paste the data from the Excel file. Usually we get lots of data in the form of Excel files when we are doing the benchmark exercise. You can simply just copy and paste the data in this. I think I will explain also that what kind of data we can put in here but here also you can see that you can already define the, as it is the case of a sodium cool fast reactor, you can define the pitch, the wire diameter, the wire angle, the number of pins, the width, the canwall width, the thickness of the canwall. So there are different parameters that are already predefined in this and you can just change it as per the requirement of your model. As an example so that it makes it easier for you to understand, I will take the example of the new CRP that we are starting, the Chinese experimental fast reactor. I already tried to make the model in this and as a first step before starting the CRP, let's say I call it pre-CRP where we got the technical specifications from China. As a process or a review process, we have to go through the specification in order to make sure that the specifications are correct. So what we do is what I was assigned or let's say what Vladimir suggested that I should try to make this reactor in our data storage toolkit and see if there are some mismatches in the geometry or if there is something which is missing and we were able to find that. So we stored all the available data in this digital nuclear reactor storage toolkit. We evaluated the available data provided by the CIA, which is the primary organization leading the CRP. And then we requested CIA to provide more data and clarify for the benchmark exercise. It was very useful work and then distribute the data to interested member states for their use once all the data is connected in the storage toolkit. Post-CRP, as I said, the main vision is that we preserve the data and distribute it as requested by the interested member states. So that's the long-term vision and the long-term goal of the data storage toolkit. So let me just show you this example and this will also help in clarifying how the toolkit actually works. So here is a picture that we got in the form of let's say paper specifications that was given to us. So this was the core specification given, the dimensions of the assembly and fuel pins. Let's say a simplified structure of the assembly as well. And then what are the different types of sub-assembly and how it was defined in the specification documents. Then there were some geometry, which was a geometrical data which was missing. So it was derived and it was not clear that if some of the geometry is expended because of the increase in the temperature or not. So this was also a very useful exercise to go understand. And then as a step one, as I said that, I used this sub-assembly geometry data and created a ZFI files with a simple user interface which is there. As a first step, I defined the actual distribution. So here you can see that all the actual heights are defined for different sub-assembly type. You can define any type as you like. So but as it was like a gas planon, then a fertile part, then a fissile part, then again a fertile part. And then stainless steel parts. So I defined different actual heights. Then you can define each segment as a step two. So here the segment was defined that how many pins are there, what is the width of the canvall and everything for each actual geometry, let's say. And then as a step three, we can define the pin geometry and material. So here the geometry for the pin and the material for the pin is also defined what is the pellet and things like that. After this is done, a simple, let's say the geometry that was given to us by the, in the specification documentation was converted into this which makes it more clear how the geometry looks, how different segments are in one particular sub-assembly and what is the structure of each segment of the sub-assembly. So fuel pin structure and material is also defined via the setup file. Currently we have hexagonal, cylindrical or rectangular geometry with the available templates and the isotopic composition for all the material could also be defined using this toolkit. So just to give you an idea that the diagram that was the specification geometry that was given to us by in the specification document was converted into this which makes it much easier to understand the structure and the geometry of the core. And also here it makes it very easy to understand if there is any mismatch in the actual level of different sub-assembly or let's say for example that this one shows that the control rod is a little bit inserted in this. So it shows that maybe at the startup or at this particular time the control rods are inserted and should we do the modeling based upon that or is there an error in that. So these are some things which help to clarify before starting the CRP. Just to give you an example again that when I was doing this exercise, so I was able to understand that how the different segments in the fuel assemblies are defined and how the structure is. And I was also able to find a little bit of mismatch which is now corrected. So this helped in a little bit let's say improvement or evaluation of the data that was given to us. And this is important data because if we make an error at the starting of the CRP, the results might be completely different. And this also helps that because when you take the data from files or let's say text files and try to make your model. And if let's say for a CRP where we have 25 to 30 organization participating in this, there might be an error in the way they interpret the data. This also helps in reducing let's say the uncertainty which is or the user error which is relevant or related to the factor, to the fact that the input data could also be wrong if it's done differently by different organizations. So it helps to reduce one parameter of uncertainty if we give this in a digital format where everybody will be using the same set to derive their calculations. However, we have to also make sure that this data set is accurate. As a step two, we can arrange all the assemblies into the code to create the layout. So here you can see that it's a simple structure which I will explain in the next slide that how the whole core map could be created. Once we have all the assemblies which are defined into the data storage toolkit, we can give as you can see here a ring from and count how many assemblies are in that ring. How do we do that is you can see here that the black number gives the number of ring as most of you who have been doing these simulations or modeling for fast reactors, we define rings as the each outer layer of the assemblies. And then within each ring, you can define the numbers. So let's say if I am here, I define this ring as ring one and the assemblies are one, zero, one, one, one, two, one, three, one, four, one, five. If I have 20 assemblies, I will start counting from here and keep on going to the next ring and the next 20 assemblies will be of this structure. So it's very easy that through only one file, if you know the count of the assemblies, you can just keep on giving that number. For example, here, you can just give the count of the numbers from which ring and how many assemblies and it will automatically create the whole core map. And again, this helps in visualizing and also reduces the uncertainty or error that you can do in the input making because now you know the exact position where you have modeled the assembly. So here, this slide shows that how the complete core map was created. Each and every subassembly was defined all through the actual lens, their particular geometry and eventually I was able to create at least the inner core of the reactor. The toolkit also gives a possibility to have visualization in axial directions in north-south or east-west or xy-plane or yz-plane as you would like to call it. And it also helps to understand what are the different elevations in. It was very interesting to see the layout of Phoenix. So we also already did this exercise with Phoenix. One of our interns from France, she was trying to convert one of the CRP data from Phoenix end of life test and make a digital storage toolkit for that. That is almost done. So we have that data in the digital format and the core layout of Phoenix, you will see it's very interesting to see. There are additional features, as I said, meshing, so you can create the mesh which can then use to calculate the expansions and different things as you would like to see or if you would like to connect to different codes. This is just an example to show that how the expansion was calculated and the mesh was refined as per the new expansion. So in summary, the digital nuclear reactor is an easy to use data storage toolkit that can be used to input all necessary reactor data for a benchmark exercise. Usually, we give it to the CRP participants that they are free to use the data and can then provide to them. And also, in case you are also interested to know or learn more about the toolkit, I'll be happy to interact with you. The interface to connect different codes can be developed by the user. The tool can be used to assess if enough data is available to carry out the CRP, thus assuring that the availability of data before the kickoff meeting, usually we have a kickoff meeting and this helps in assuring that we have enough data for that. We'll reduce the risk of incorrect data input by the participants. We'll lead to long-term preservation of benchmark data and later the results after the post-processing module is developed. So there is an idea to develop a post-processing module where we have all the results collected and then we can also visualize the results that are calculated after the benchmark exercise. The data can then be distributed to interested member states after the CRP is completed along with the technical document. So one of the idea is that once we publish the technical document, we also distribute this toolkit along with the tech doc. It can also be used for educational purposes. We are still exploring that option that maybe we can do some simple calculations and simulations. That was also the idea to have one exercise based on this toolkit, but I think I was a bit lazy and I didn't prepare the exercise for this toolkit and otherwise also it would have been a lot of work for you guys, so you should be happy about that. Future work is that we are gonna develop interfaces to couple different codes. My idea is to at least make an interface for serpent code, which is a very widely used code now for neutronis calculations and then perform simple calculations for thermal expansions based on the thermal expansion provisions provided for the CFR CRP or the FFTF CRP which we'll be conducting. Develop other modules for post-processing, make necessary changes to the graphical interface for better user experience. Of course it's in development mode so there are some bugs and errors that we have to do that and then idea is to also do the similar exercise for FFTF ULOF CRP that we are starting soon. I would also like to acknowledge KIT for the advice in the development of this toolkit and that's all from my side. Thank you, thank you very much.