This page is for sharing ideas and best practices in communication around the COVID-19 pandemic, how it is affecting the NREN and R&E communities, and how GÉANT and NRENs are responding / can respond to provide each other with support and information.
PLEASE KEEP US UP-TO-DATE WITH YOUR COMMUNICATIONS PLANS / NEEDS / OUTPUTS IN THIS AREA - CONTACT laura.durnford@geant.org
IF YOUR ORGANISATION IS PREPARING MESSAGING AROUND THIS SITUATION, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THIS COLLECTION OF INFORMATION AS A RESOURCE - use the filters to sort content by date, audience, delivery channel (medium), topic (category) and organisation.
| DATE | AUDIENCE | MEDIUM | CATEGORY | BY WHOM | TEXT | LINK | COMMENTS / CONSIDERATIONS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 March 2020 | internal, staff | email, slack | GENERAL | GÉANT Exec / Health & Safety Committee | Today, March 12th, both the UK and the Dutch governments announced new recommendations in light of the Corona virus. UK Government update 12 March 12, 2020 The only key change in the UK is that people are advised to stay at home for 7 days if they have mild symptoms. NL Government update 12 March 2020 The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, held a press conference today and announced new recommendations that will now be in place for Major points: 1. Across the country, people with colds, coughing or sore throat and possibly fever should stay at home; they should avoid social contacts as much as possible until they are restored 2. All events with more than 100 people throughout the Netherlands should be cancelled 3. The Government asks people to work from home as much as possible 4. The group of people who are vulnerable (WHO defines this group as older persons and persons with pre-existing medical conditions (such as high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes)) should avoid large gatherings and public transport.
GÉANT Health and Safety Committee Update 12 March Given the above announcement GÉANT has reviewed it’s position which is now as follows:NL based staff are encouraged to work from home as much as possible in line with the recommendation from the Dutch government. GÉANT Employees in the UK should discuss the situation with their line managers if they are concerned about coming into the office. Line managers will | n/a | |
| 11 March | event participants | EVENTS / TRAVEL | PRACE | Dear participant, speaker, session chair, staff member, stakeholder of the EuroHPC Summit Week (EHPCSW) 2020, Thank you for your registration for this year’s edition of our conference. Close to 500 of you were planning to participate during one or more days of the week-long event, showing that the sessions and speakers we lined up as well as the networking possibilities we included in the programme suited your interests and needs. One topic that has been on everyone’s mind these past weeks – and will do so for the foreseeable future – is the COVID-19 pandemic. New outbreaks and the spread of the coronavirus causing this illness are on the news daily, and we are all worried and unsure how the situation will develop and how it will affect us personally and professionally. As the health and well-being of everyone involved in the EuroHPC Summit Week 2020 is of the utmost importance to us, we have been keeping a close eye on the situation and regularly consulting the official guidelines of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the World Health Organisation, and the Portuguese government. Considering the current situation with many organisations putting travel bans in place, and local and national governments ordering quarantine perimeters around clusters of infections, we have come to the conclusion that continuing the conference is untenable and have therefore decided to cancel the event. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, these are exceptional and regrettable circumstances and we do hope for your understanding. We will update this page with more information and answers to frequently asked questions as we go forward. If you have any further questions, please contact us by e-mail. We will do our best to answer you as quickly and completely as possible. A number of sessions will be transformed into virtual / all-digital meetings, and we will list these on a dedicated page to be created here We can already tell you that EHPCSW 2021 will take place in Porto, Portugal, in March next year - stay tuned for more details to come! Thank you again for your support and looking forward to meeting you next year, The EuroHPC Summit Week Organisation & Programme Committee | n/a | ||
| 6 March 2020 | internal, staff | EVENTS / TRAVEL | GÉANT Finance | Dear Colleagues In light of recent developments regarding COVID-19 we are anticipating a significant number of travel and events (organised internally, by GÉANT Association) to be cancelled or postponed. In all instances steps need to be taken to mitigate the financial impact on GÉANT. In order to manage the process of claiming (or via insurance) “cancelled” costs (i.e. costs relating to activity that will not take place, which ordinarily would not be claimable from an EC funded project), it will be extremely helpful if colleagues could assist in the following way: If your trip or event is cancelled, please contact the relevant person below to inform them of any cancelled events/ travel:
**this is mainly aimed at Event organisers** Please provide the PO’s that have been allocated for the event. If a separate contract was signed after the PO (i.e. venue hire) please send a copy of the signed document. A list of expected attendees will also be required.
This request has no impact on those working outside GÉANT Association, i.e. those working for NRENs. I appreciate that this is adding a little more overhead at a time when due to COVID-19 things are already pretty stressful. Your help in this respect is much appreciated and will ensure that the financial impact to GÉANT from COVID-19 will be mitigated to as large an extent as possible. Thanks, | n/a | ||
| 5 March 2020 | external, general, public | website | GENERAL | GÉANT Marcomms | The GÉANT Association continues to closely monitor advice and recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and from Dutch and UK governments regarding the coronavirus. GÉANT's Health and Safety Committee utilises this information in decision-making regarding international travel and other considerations. We will continue to support our partners in the most effective way possible whilst ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our staff and the wider GÉANT Community. | https://www.geant.org/News_and_Events/Pages/GEANT-and-COVID-19.aspx | |
| 5 March 2020 | external, general, public | website | EVENTS / TRAVEL | GÉANT Marcomms | GÉANT and Jisc remain committed to TNC20 with unchanged enthusiasm and dedication. To provide additional time before registering, the Early Bird registration has been extended to 31 March 2020. | https://www.geant.org/News_and_Events/Pages/GEANT-and-COVID-19.aspx | |
| 5 March 2020 | external, general, public | website | OPERATIONS | GÉANT Marcomms | GÉANT operations are closely monitoring the situation in all countries where GÉANT network POP locations exist. We are following WHO advice regarding international travel relating to these locations. Network Operations Centre activity in the UK is unaffected and all non-essential travel by NOC staff has been suspended. The situation is not currently affecting existing network services to the NREN and R&E community. Fault rectification and associated first line maintenance activities are outsourced and performed by in-country resources and therefore are not reliant on GÉANT engineering staff to travel. Until more clarity exists, planned physical Network Architecture changes and upgrades have been largely suspended. Only service-critical changes will be performed using GÉANT operations staff who will observe all advice regarding minimising risk of exposure. Should in-country travel by 3rd party engineering resource be restricted by the respective national government authorities or otherwise, then GÉANT operations will inform the local NREN and discuss any mitigation measures. GÉANT operations continue to monitor the situation and are regularly in communication with key suppliers of equipment, logistics and engineering services and will inform users of any significant changes to the current approach. | https://www.geant.org/News_and_Events/Pages/GEANT-and-COVID-19.aspx | There has been close liaison between marcomms and the operational teams regarding this messaging. The ops team has also sent its own messages to its contacts. |
| 2 March 2020 | internal, staff | Slack internal | GENERAL | GÉANT Exec / Health & Safety Committee | UPDATE TO ALL STAFF REGARDING CORONAVIRUS Sent on behalf of the Health and safety Committee: We previously communicated on the Coronavirus on 3rd February as per the original mail below, the H&S Committee met today to agree on an update to all staff. Whilst advice from the World Health Organisation has not substantially changed it is clear that many have concerns regarding the virus and how it may affect us and the recent outbreaks in Europe have added to these concerns. In response to concerns about the safety of travel, whether by air or public transport, we would like to share the following information from the WHO website on the current understanding of how the virus is transmitted and suggest that you review the sections highlighted below.https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses · How does COVID-19 spread? · What can I do to protect myself and prevent the spread of the disease? · How likely am I to catch COVID-19? · Should I worry about COVID-19?This also provides some general information on travelling during the coronavirus outbreak: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/travel-adviceWith immediate effect all staff are to conduct a Travel Risk Assessment for all European Travel – the purpose of this step is to ensure that staff are considering the very latest information on travel safety location by location as recommended by their respective Government. In addition to conducting a travel risk assessment, there is also a need for staff to continue to monitor the advice on safety of travel right up to the date of travel. Staff will also be required to consider the risks to return travel should an outbreak of the virus occur in their location. There is no expectation that staff will be required to travel on business unless they feel entirely comfortable and safe with the arrangements for the travel required. The Travel Risk Assessment form and information can be found here https://geant.app.box.com/folder/12434068610Staff who decide to travel must be in good health and not in any of the health risk groups identified (see https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses – Who is at risk of developing severe illness?). Travellers should pay particular attention to regularly and thoroughly cleaning their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water, particularly before eating – small bottles of hand sanitiser are in our offices and staff can take one with them for travel.For staff who have already booked European travel and not conducted a risk assessment they should now complete a travel risk assessment and consider all risks appropriately up to the day of their travel and as above consider the implications on return travel to establish whether or not travel remains safe and appropriate for them.Given that a significant number of organisations are now choosing to cancel international events, even outside of affected areas, staff are advised to consider their planned participation very carefully, and where there may be uncertainty of an event going ahead. Where relevant, staff should give consideration to cancellation costs of flights etc. and possible use of flexible booking terms where available.Whilst considering how these measures may affect GÉANT, staff are advised that any initial concerns about the impact of Coronavirus on business travel or travel to work by public transport or attendance in our offices should ideally be discussed first with their line manager, however HR staff and members of the H&S Committee can also be approached if required.These arrangements will remain in place until further notice and are subject to change. The H&S Committee will continue to monitor and evaluate any changes in advice from National and International bodies monitoring the Virus. The Committee are also considering how best to ensure business continuity should the effects of the Virus become more serious or widespread.Further updates from the H&S Committee will follow over forthcoming days. (edited) who.int Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19) WHO is continuously monitoring and responding to this outbreak. This Q&A will be updated as more is known about COVID-19, how it spreads and how it is affecting people worldwide. For more information, check back regularly on WHO’s coronavirus pages. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019WHO is continuously monitoring and responding to this outbreak. This Q&A will be updated as more is known about COVID-19, how it spreads and how it is affecting people worldwide. For more information, check back regularly on WHO’s coronavirus pages. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019WHO is continuously monitoring and responding to this outbreak. Th… Show more https://www.who.int/images/default-source/health-topics/coronavirus/gettyimages-1181575980.tmb-1200v.jpg?Culture=en&sfvrsn=7ec493b8_4 | n/a | |
| 1 March 2020 | external, NREN community | meeting registration pages | EVENTS / TRAVEL | GÉANT staff (various) | Information on COVID-19 Whilst advice from the World Health Organisation has not substantially changed it is clear that many have concerns regarding the virus and how it may affect us and the recent outbreaks in Europe have added to these concerns. In response to concerns about the safety of travel, whether by air or public transport, we would like to share the following information from the WHO website on the current understanding of how the virus is transmitted and suggest that you review the sections highlighted below.
There is further information on travelling during the coronavirus outbreak GÉANT is actively monitoring the WHO advice and the situation in general in locations where GÉANT meetings are planned and will keep in contact with participants if the situation changes. Please do talk to your own organisations about their advice to employees on travel. | e.g. https://eventr.geant.org/events/3240 | |
| 28 Feb 2020 | internal, staff | EVENTS / TRAVEL | GÉANT Finance | Dear Colleagues, Given the developing situation with the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), with immediate effect, and until further notice, all new travel bookings (all modes of travel, including by train and plane) will be suspended to provide a duty of care to all staff and avoid unnecessary cancellation costs in the future. Although at this time, there are no formal reasons not to travel, we note that many people in our community are cancelling travel to various meetings and asking for VC alternatives. Therefore, travel planning for future meetings is to be suspended until we have more clarity on developments. Our account with our travel agency has been temporarily suspended. Please note, this temporary travel ban applies to all future bookings. If you have already made a booking, please ensure that you monitor the https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/travel-advice to determine if it is safe to continue with your travel plans/meetings. Please remember that risk assessments for all visits that have already been booked to all destinations must be undertaken. There is no expectation that staff who have already booked their travel will be required to travel on business unless they feel entirely comfortable and safe with the arrangements for the travel required. Staff will continue to be informed regarding the impact of Coronavirus on GÉANT operations, and specifically in relation to forthcoming events. Please let me, or your manager or any member of the Exec know if you have any queries regarding the above. | n/a |
