4th Annual CCP-SAS Project Workshop
June 19-21, 2017
Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Information for Participants
Fees
There is
no registration fee for this meeting, but places are limited and prior registration is necessary.
Visas
If you are not a UK or EU citizen you
may require a visa to enter the UK. You can check
here (links to external website).
Travelling to Cardiff
Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, is well connected by air, rail and road:
Air
Cardiff (Rhoose) Airport (IATA: CWL, ICAO: EGFF) is 15 miles/35 minutes by road from the meeting venue and is served by an
Express Bus (T9) to/from Cardiff City Centre up to every 30 minutes. Alternatively you can take a taxi, or a connecting bus to Rhoose Cardiff International Airport (RIA) railway station where a local stopping service to Cardiff Central Station takes 30 minutes to 1 hour.
There are direct, though not necessarily daily, flights between Cardiff and major European hubs such as Amsterdam Schipol (AMS), Munich (MUC), and Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG).
Rail
Cardiff Central Station (CDF) is a 1 mile/20 minutes walk from the meeting venue, through the city centre. Alternatively, you can change trains at Cardiff Central on to a local service serving Cathays Station (CYS), located just across the road from the meeting venue. Trains to Cathays are every 10-15 minutes and the journey time is 6 minutes.
Cardiff Central sits on the famous Great Western mainline between London and Wales. The journey time to/from London Paddington Station (PAD) is just over 2 hours, or just over 90 minutes from Reading Station (RDG). Reading and Paddington offer direct connections to London Heathrow Airport (LHR).
If travelling from the north or southwest of the UK it will be necessary to change trains at Birmingham New Street or Bristol Parkway/Bristol Temple Meads, respectively.
Road
Cardiff is served by the M4 motorway. Exit at junctions J29, J30 or J32.
It is necessary to pay a toll charge (£6.70/car; cash/card) to cross either of the Severn Bridges into Wales from England if you wish to avoid a lengthy detour! If travelling from the north of the UK, leave the M5 motorway no later than Gloucester in order to avoid the toll.
As an illustration, the journey from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to the venue by road is 140 miles and would take 2.5 hours in normal traffic. However, the section of the M4 between the M4/M5 interchange (J20) and Cardiff can get extremely busy at rush hour, and traffic often backs up where the motorway drops from 3 lanes to 2 lanes at the Brynglas Tunnels between J25A and J26. The meeting will unfortunately also coincide with the commencement of full overnight closures (8pm-6am) of the tunnels for maintenance (but there will be diversions in operation!).
Please note: there will not be any vehicle parking at the venue!
Accommodation
There is a massive range of accommodation available in and around the city centre. The following
suggestions are based purely on the personal opinion of the organisers and word-of-mouth:
About a 5 minute walk from the venue:
- Travelodge Queen Street (2 star) – cheaper end of the budget range
- Jury’s Inn Parc Hotel – very nice, prices from £50, depending on your room choice
- Park Plaza (4 star) – very nice, bit more expensive - has a spa/gym/pool
- Hilton, Boulevard de Nantes – more expensive, but very nice – has a spa/gym/pool
About a 10 minute walk (or 5 minute train journey) from the venue:
- IBIS Churchill Way (2 star) – hotel at the cheaper end of the budget range (be careful not to confuse this IBIS with the IBIS Budget City Centre which is a 10 minute walk further away
- Premier Inn City Centre – very nice mid-price hotel (rooms from £45), great location right opposite Cardiff Queen Street Station (this is the Premier Inn on Churchill Way)
- Park Inn by Radisson – mid-range chain hotel, recently refurbished
Near Cardiff Central Station (15-20 minute walk or 5 minute train journey from the venue):
- Sleeperz – rooms from £50, right next to Cardiff Central Station - worth paying extra for a slightly larger room, but avoid the twin rooms unless you like bunk beds!
- Best Western Clayton Hotel – very nice, prices depend on your room choice
- Cardiff Marriot – it's a Marriot!
- Angel Hotel – lovely Victorian building (which usually means larger size rooms) - a bit further from the Station but usually a good price
And for those with deeper pockets:
- St David’s Spa Cardiff Bay (5 star) – fabulous restaurant, bar, full spa facilities, views of Cardiff Bay, etc - but about a 30 minute journey to the department (short walk and two very short train journeys)
Other options:
- There are lots of guesthouses on Cathedral Road which is just at the edge of the city centre and about a 20 minute walk across the park from the University. There are also various hostels and bunkhouses for students looking for a bargain – some of which are quite nice – but you'll need to do some web searches. For groups of people travelling together, renting an apartment for a few days might be an economic option.
NOTE: Participants are responsible for arranging their own accommodation.
Refreshments
Morning and afternoon refreshments, along with a light lunch, will be provided to all registered participants on Monday 19th June.
Posters
Delegates are encouraged to consider presenting posters on work using or related to CCP-SAS on Monday 19th June. Titles and abstracts should be supplied during the registration process.
Poster boards will be A0 size and Portrait orientation. Posters should be hung with Velcro.
Tutorials
Delegates intending to participate in the Tutorial sessions on Wednesday 21st June should bring their own laptop computers. These should be reasonably modern (eg, Windows 7 or 10, Mac OSX).
The organisers may be able to loan a small number of Windows laptops for the SASSIE Tutorials if necessary, but it is imperative that they are advised of the need for this before Friday 16th June (email the Meeting Contact, Prof. Stephen Perkins).
Delegates participating in the SASSIE Tutorials will need to install some software on their laptops beforehand. A zip archive of the necessary packages for Windows machines, including installation instructions, may be downloaded here. Mac OS and Linux users should read these instructions. NB: these links may not work properly in the Microsoft Edge browser.
Local Organisers
Dr Alison Paul, Cardiff University
Dr Steve King, ISIS Pulsed Neutron & Muon Source
