1. Introduction

In this document we distinguish three forms of information transmission:

• Communication (C): Non-members of the community who may be interested in the work. This is the responsibility of WG6.

• Dissemination (D): Members of the community. This is the responsibility of WG6.

• Valorisation/Exploitation (V): End users, e.g. researchers/companies, etc. This is the responsibility of WG5.

2. Where, how and when

There will be several sources and methods of communication and dissemination. They are listed below, with the responsible party in parentheses:

1. Branding and logo creation (WG6)

2. Website creation (WG6)

   1. Dynamic (Wiki-style)

   2. Static 

3. Test case and code repositories (SCC)

4. Workshops (CG)

5. Video training (WG6)

6. Handbook (WG4/SCC)

7. Open access journal publications (SCC)

8. Fun marketing (WG6)

9. Social media presence: LinkedIn/YouTube (WG6)

10. e-Learning Management system (WG4)

11. Newsletters (WG5/6)

12. Web/Cloud solution for software (WG5)

13. Mentoring program (WG6, WG5)

14. Outreach: Science fairs and public engagement (WG5/6)

15. Training and certification (WG5)

3. Target Groups (Who, why, what)

We are planning to communicate with the following groups (note UR indicates a currently Under-Represented group):

1. Current members (D)

2. Industrial DEM potential users: Especially SMEs, their participation needs to be increased. (V)

3. Computer scientists / Software architects (D)

4. Other academics i.e. academics who are not members of the network but may be interested in the output. (D)

5. (UR) Female researchers (D)

6. (UR) ICT countries (C)

7. (UR) Young academics (C)

8. Undergraduate students and programme coordinators (C)

9. General Public (C)

10. Open-source community in general (D)

11. Policy makers and standardisation bodies (V)

12. Characterisation machine manufacturers (V)

Detailed description of Where/How and When

1. Branding

Logo and brand will be created with the ON-DEM word in mind and will be integrated to all our social media accounts, websites, events, email signatures and other forms of advertisement/marketing materials. The means of creating the brand will be decided within WG6. Note, the logo in various formats will be downloadable from the website and slide templates will be provided for future presentations.

When: The branding should be created at the beginning of the network and used throughout and beyond. 

2. Website creation

We are intending to create a wiki-style website that will be constantly updated. This wiki-style website will be used to disseminate the academic results in detail and will be a repository for action generated findings and will include links to the open-source data produced. It is anticipated that the wiki will live beyond the lifetime of the COST network and remain an up-to-date and relevant central resource for knowledge, features and abilities of open-source codes, and best practices in particle simulations.

We are also considering creating a static website that is more streamlined which will include links to our all relevant social media channels and wiki-style website. We will use this static website for communication and valorization (communicating with the non-academic partners and advertising our action to non-members). The means of establishing these websites (specific tools and methods) will be further discussed in the working groups 6 and 5 to be detailed in the future versions of this plan.

The wiki-style website will serve several purposes:

1. It will act as a central information point for companies and researchers to see the outputs of the Action. This will facilitate the addition of new stakeholders.

2. It will act as a gateway to repositories containing validation and other data.

3. It will maintain lists of available resources for the community in terms of open-source codes, high-performance facilities and knowledge.

4. It will show the current actions and progress of each Working Group. The wiki will have a dynamic website allowing members of each Working Group to continuously update the information. This will facilitate ease of communication for members of each Working Group that are geographically spread across Europe and beyond. Also it will enable each Working Group to keep up-to-date with the activities and outputs of the other groups allowing better and closer synergy between Working Groups.

5. This website will be built to be easy to update so all members can change their personal and other relevant pages.

The static website will serve several purposes:

1. It will allow outsiders to have a streamlined and summarised view of the action and its all social channels.

2. It will have general information regarding network members and types of open-source software that is utilised by them.

3. It will act as a central point to advertise jobs in the area of particle simulations both in academia and industry. Leading to both a consistent supply of skilled employees for both academia and SMEs and better career development opportunities for people within the field.

4. It will be a page to advertise our work to outsiders along social media platforms.

When: As soon as possible. The Wiki should outlive the project.

1. Test case repositories

Tutorials to prepare simple experiments (e.g., for calibration/validation) would be great, which are being discussed as part of WG4 scope. This science dissemination and communication plan will create guidelines on what tools are preferred for uploading data and how to link this data to the websites in the upcoming versions. We will not dictate a certain data repository tool, and provide a central wiki for linking all the repositories together. The aim is to prevent forcing people to use tools that they are not familiar with and make the data sharing as easy as possible.

When: As soon as test cases are created by relevant Working Groups and should outlive the project.

1. Workshops

There were several ideas regarding under-represented groups’ mentoring and workshops in the kick-off meeting. These include young researchers, female participants, network members affiliated to Inclusiveness-Target-Countries (ITC) and under-represented scientific fields. These kinds of additional workshops could be organised for these groups, which would also increase our visibility in the field. The aim of these workshops would be recruitment and training new researchers.

When: At least one per year during the action.

1. Video training

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) (that are linked to our wiki-style website), recordings of previous live training sessions of the action and small Youtube videos on interesting findings or research questions can be a good way to both disseminate to academic peers, train new researchers and communicate with other interested parties. We will investigate the possibility of creating smaller lead roles for managing these multimedia products.

When: At regular intervals during the action within 6 months of the creation of training material.

1. Handbook

We will also develop training materials and courses for young researchers and write a handbook

on best practices that will be published towards the end of the Action. The training materials will be initially used at training schools given as part of this Action; however, all materials will be made freely and openly available under the Creative Commons licence via the website. This will be done in close collaboration with the other WGs, especially WG4 which is responsible for the best practices. 

When: Draft version used and tested for training events and a final version published towards the end of the action.

1. Open access journal publications

We are intending to use both Open Research Europe (ORE), exploring the creation of bespoke and focused publications,  and aim to publish on well-respected open access peer-reviewed journals.

When: As and when materials are in a state it can be published.

1. Fun marketing

Some of the fun marketing strategies could be a good way to make action members' participation sentimentally better along with improved advertising for the Action. Such examples are: beer mats, stickers (especially to emphasise the logo), overall patches and training school attendance t-shirts. We are intending to investigate the possibility of creation of such products after logo creation is complete based on the budget available.

Ideally the fun marketing should contain a logo and a QR code linking back to the (static) website. Also the QR code should be added to ON-DEM business cards.

When: As soon as possible and ends with the Action.

1. Social media presence

We are intending to have a LinkedIn page for communicating and advertising our Action to non-members (such as potential industrial partners). Using LinkedIn pages, all people would have the chance to follow the page and see the major updates of our action, but not inner detail and dialogue that would normally happen within exclusive communication channels of the Working Groups.

We are intending to convert the already existing LinkedIn group exclusively to action members and intending to create a separate LinkedIn group for Industrial partners that are under WG5’s scope. 

We will investigate the feasibility of having a Youtube and Mastodon accounts.. 

When: This will be done during the Action; however, the ON-DEM brand and social channels may be extended beyond the end of the Action.

10) e-learning management system

The idea is to create an online interactive e-learning system to teach all skill levels about DEM. We will seek out help regarding e-learning from within and outside the network. There are network members with expertise in this area. 

When: This should be setup by the end of the Action and will be maintained beyond the action.

11)  Newsletters/Blog

We should have a mailing list for a newsletter and blog. Also we can and should use a server like mailchimp for looking after subscribers. This may also help with assessment of policy as it provides the number of recipients who opened the email or clicked on the links.

When: Regularly during the lifetime of the Action

12) Web cloud solution for software 

Development of an easy to use interface for different DEM codes, with access to cloud deployment examples which are fully documented and published in a repository. The idea is to allow people on demand access to simulation without the need for installing or even owning the hardware. This could either be via command  line or potentially even a web application. Current the network members have some experience developing such tools for industry use. However, these could be improved and extended such that they are useful for academics. 

When: Setup and tested during the action and designed to outlive the Action.

13) Mentoring program

We should try arranging mentoring connections between experienced users and less experienced users of DEM by grouping people that are interested in having career coaching or technical workshops or work shadowing. This could also involve professionals from industry to be matched with academics for certain programmes.

When: Starting in the second year and running to the end of the Action. 

14) Science fairs and public engagement (outreach)

We plan to arrange a public engagement event at least once a year, to create a positive image of the granular community and the open-source movement. It will help inspire the next generation of students and engineers to take up the methods we develop. This can be done as part of the ON-DEM workshops, which usually take place at a partner university. Examples are 

• a science fair, showcasing granular processes, 

• a hackathon, telling the public about how and why to use open-source software

• educational outreach, offering lectures on topics of our expertise

When: At least once a year during the Action.

15) Training and certification

A key part of the network is both creating training material and giving on training courses to teach the next generation of researchers and academics. Secondly, we plan to use the brand to create an internationally recognised certification to show someone is qualified in simulations. 

Conference training have some certification?

When: At least once a year and certification will be possible by time of the first training. The certification is planned to outlive the action.

What gets disseminated to which target group?

A Current members

It is important to keep current members informed of the actions and outcomes of each WG. Each WG should post a general short summary of progress at least every 3 months to all members. Hence even people not in the WG have an overview of the work of each WG and can collaborate.

B Industrial DEM potential users

There are many problems in industry that could benefit from particulate simulations where DEM is often not used due to the lack of understanding of the potential of the software used.. When we consider open-source particle simulations the problem is even worse. Therefore industry should be made aware of what this community can provide and the benefits of using particle simulations.

C Computer scientists / Software architects

The field is very computational and there is a lot of knowledge about algorithms in computer science which could aid this field. However, there are very few (if any) people with this background active in the field. Therefore we want to make this community aware of particle simulations and all the existing problems which exist for them in this area.

D Other academics

Similarly there may be other academic areas that either could benefit from/to our community; which we are not currently aware of. Especially as the current network is very mechanical and civil engineering focused. Therefore we should also try to connect with wider academics. Note, computer scientists are separated as there is a known need for their skill; however, there are likely a lot more groups which could aid us that we are completely unaware of. 

E/F/G Under-represented groups (female researchers, ICT countries, young academics)

The network is not balanced with respect to representatives from ICT countries, young and female academics. Therefore one of the aids of the network and particularly the communication strategy is to increase knowledge and participation in the area of particle simulations. Therefore we will need to actively communicate that these groups are not only welcome but actively sought to join our community. 

H Undergraduate students and programme coordinators 

One of the major problems with the area of particulates and in particular simulation of particulates is it is often not part of a core curriculum for undergraduate students which means the basics are not known by people in industry. Therefore we need to make both students and programme coordinators aware of the problems with particulates and explain that understanding the basics should be a core part of both a civil and a mechanical engineering study. 

I General public

Informing the general public serves to create a positive image of the granular community and the open-source movement. It will help inspire the next generation of students and engineers to take up the methods we develop. Dissemination is done via outreach projects such as science fairs and the social media channels.

J Open-source community in general

The open-source community in general is very broad and again there are many other open-source projects which this community could benefit from. A clear example is Paraview which is an open-source visualisation program which most of the community uses; however, they were not aware of our community. Therefore we really need to make the other open-source codes aware of what we are doing such that in the future we can work closer together towards an European open-source software toolkit.   

K Policy makers and standardisation bodies

In the area of particulates there is a lack of standardisation compared to neighbouring fields like fluids mechanics. There needs to be some standardisation across different disciplines which undertake particle simulations e.g. mechanical, civil and chemical engineering. Therefore we need to try and create and get accepted standard processes for e.g. calibration simulation models. 

L Characterisation machine manufacturers

Linked to policy is also the characterisation of machinery/equipment manufacture. At the moment there are many different machines for characterising granular materials but it is often unknown how to use these for calibration of simulations. We need to work with these companies either to improve the machines or calibration methodology such that they may be used to calibrate particle simulations. 

4. Assessment of Policy

We will regularly review our information transmission policies and see if they are reaching the target groups. In order to assess the success of our policy we will use Metrics. Metrics will include but not be limited to:

• Number of website views, per sub-page/category of website

• Time spent on website

• Number of recipients of newsletter

• Number of downloads of documents, code, data etc

• Number of likes, sharing etc in social media

• Number of (active) users contributing to wiki

5. Implementation of Policy

We will have a person responsible for each channel and for creating content for each target audience. These channels and content responsibilities could be given work group level titles such as “Brand Manager”, “LinkedIn Managers” and ”Industrial content creator”, etc. These titles could be elected in the meetings of the WG6 and WG5 for relevant scope.

The following table shows which channels will be used for which groups: