The Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) network of telescopes is now open to the whole US community, thanks to an NSF MSIP award. The goal of this program is to stimulate the community to organize observing programs that will lead to the development of technologies and experience that will be required for LSST.
Approximately 1200 hours of time on the LCO 1-m network and 220 hours on the LCO 2-m network will be available per semester, starting in 2017, and US astronomers have the opportunities to lead or join Key Projects and to propose to the bi-annual calls that will be issued by NOAO.
This is an excellent opportunity to develop your science by responding to existing survey discoveries, while making sure that everything you need will be in place in time for LSST.
A complete introduction to this program is available LCO Open Access Program, and the LCO team will be hosting a series of workshops where you can learn more.
The first event will be a Splinter session at the next AAS meeting on Jan 6, 2017, 6:30-8pm, Grapevine 2, followed by a workshop in Tucson in May 22-25 2017, where you will be able to get hands-on experience working directly with experienced users of the LCO network.
In the meantime, please feel free to join the discussion on this thread.