  The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a new ground-based sky survey
designed to find transiting Neptunes and super-Earths. By covering at least
sixteen times the sky area of Kepler we will find small planets around stars
that are sufficiently bright for radial velocity confirmation, mass
determination and atmospheric characterisation. The NGTS instrument will
consist of an array of twelve independently pointed 20cm telescopes fitted with
red-sensitive CCD cameras. It will be constructed at the ESO Paranal
Observatory, thereby benefiting from the very best photometric conditions as
well as follow up synergy with the VLT and E-ELT. Our design has been verified
through the operation of two prototype instruments, demonstrating white noise
characteristics to sub-mmag photometric precision. Detailed simulations show
that about thirty bright super-Earths and up to two hundred Neptunes could be
discovered. Our science operations are due to begin in 2014.
