The new decade brings into routine operation a number of >8-m telescopes. Of direct relevance to the ING will be the twin 8-m Gemini project and the 10-m Gran Telescopio Canarias. The ING must adapt to these new parameters, and present a viable future instrumentational and operational development route to maximise its future effectiveness and relevance to the astronomical communities needs.

The aim of this workshop is to communicate to the astronomical user's of the ING facilities, the future directions that the ING is planning. At the same time, the users will be able to feedback their wishes. This will help the ING in adjusting it's plans to better meet the scientific and technical needs of the users.

Discussions and presentations from those involved with other observatories facing similar challenges will shed light on common solutions, and perhaps unique avenues for development.

Workshop Audience

The workshop is targetted to be of interest to a number of groups:

• Scientists using ING facilities
• Instrumentational groups
• Professionals involved in planning futures for similar observatories
• Professionals associated with >8-m projects and concerned with the supporting role of smaller facilities
• Professionals associated with observatories in the Canary Islands, Spain and with the Grantecan Project

Workshop Outline

The workshop starts with talks setting the scene by summarising the state of the 8-m telescope projects that are most directly relevent to the ING - namely Gemini and the 10-m GTC. These talks will give a brief overview of the state of their projects, but will concentrate specifically on how these 10-m projects see the fit and role of smaller telescopes in support of their scientific future.

The workshop then turns to focus on the main areas of science that might best be carried out on sub 8-m telescopes. A number of key areas will be highlighted, ranging from survey projects to inherent small telescope science projects (e.g. monitoring campaigns of bright vaiable stars).

The next section of the workshop concentrates on the how other observatories in the USA and Europe with smaller sub 8-m telescopes are adjusting their plans in light of the 8-m era. Calar Alto is a similar sized observatory to the ING. NOAO and ESO are larger operations, both now formulating the future development and/or rationalisation of their sub 8-m telescope to fit with their large investments in new 8-m telecopes (Gemini and the VLT respectively).

In the following section, speakers from the ING will present the scientific drivers behind the emerging ING strategic instrumentation plans. In brief, the ING will concentrate on a small number of main `strands' - focused on areas of science and technology best exploited on the range of telescopes at the ING.

External speakers from user institutions are invited to discuss the instrumentation developments that may eventually be exploited at the ING to implement these ING instrumentation `strands'. Particular attention is made to new and emerging technologies (such as Superconducting Tunnel Junction detetctors, Integral Field Units for IR fibre spectroscopy etc).

The workshop will end with a panel type discussion whereby the panel members will give their views on a small number of questions which we believe most relevent to the future of the ING in particular and sub-8-m telescopes in general. The audience will be invited to contribute to this session.

The conference proceedings will be published in New Astronomy Reviews. The members of the Scientific Organising Committee are

• Nic Walton (ING, Chair)
• Rene' Rutten (ING)
• Danny Lennon (ING)
• Vik Dhillon (Sheffield)