diff --git a/R/mp_tmb_calibrator.R b/R/mp_tmb_calibrator.R
index 16177861..7edb1e2e 100644
--- a/R/mp_tmb_calibrator.R
+++ b/R/mp_tmb_calibrator.R
@@ -488,19 +488,27 @@ TMBCalDataStruc = function(data, time) {
     }
     FALSE
   }
-  
-  data = rename_synonyms(data
-    , time = c(
-        "time", "Time", "ID", "time_id", "id", "date", "Date"
-      , "time_step", "timeStep", "TimeStep"
-    )
-    , matrix = c(
-        "matrix", "Matrix", "mat", "Mat", "variable", "var", "Variable", "Var"
-    )
-    , row = c("row", "Row")
-    , col = c("col", "Col", "column", "Column")
-    , value = c("value", "Value", "val", "Val", "default", "Default")
-  )
+
+  syns <- list(time = c("time", "Time", "ID", "time_id", "id",
+                        "date", "Date",
+                        "time_step", "timeStep", "TimeStep"),
+               matrix = c("matrix", "Matrix", "mat", "Mat",
+                          "variable", "var", "Variable", "Var"),
+               row = c("row", "Row"),
+               col = c("col", "Col", "column", "Column"),
+               value = c("value", "Value", "val", "Val", "default", "Default"))
+  data = do.call(rename_synonyms, c(list(data), syns))
+
+  ## check presence (row/col not required?)
+  for (m in setdiff(names(syns), c("row", "col"))) {
+    if (is.null(data[[m]])) {
+      stop(
+        "Supplied data did not contain a column called '", m, "' ",
+        "(or its synonyms: ",
+        paste(sprintf("'%s'", syns[[m]]), collapse = ", "), ")"
+      )
+    }
+  }
   time_column_test_value = data$time
   if (is.character(data$time)) {
     original_coercer = as.character
@@ -1270,9 +1278,23 @@ TMBTraj.character = function(
   ## Depended upon to create a character vector of output variables to fit to
   self$outputs = function() names(self$list)
   
+  # ff = function(dat) {
+  #   xx = split(dat, dat$row)
+  #   time_ids = lapply(xx, getElement, "time_ids")
+  #   row = lapply(xx, getElement, "row") |> lapply(unique)
+  #   if (!all(vapply(row, length, integer(1L)) == 1L)) {
+  #     stop("Ca")
+  #   }
+  #   if (any())
+  #   list(time_ids, row)
+  # }
+  
   ## implemented methods
   self$obs = function() lapply(self$list, getElement, "value")
-  self$obs_times = function() lapply(self$list, getElement, "time_ids")
+  self$obs_times = function() {
+    #split(traj$list$infection, traj$list$infection$row)
+    lapply(self$list, getElement, "time_ids")
+  }
   self$distr_params = function() {
     switch(
         getOption("macpan2_default_loss")[1L]
diff --git a/tests/testthat/setup.R b/tests/testthat/setup.R
index d9de5a94..bdaa2fca 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/setup.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/setup.R
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ sims = list(
   , sir_10_I = mp_simulator(all_specs$sir, 10L, "I")
   , sir_50_infection = mp_simulator(all_specs$sir, 50L, "infection")
   , sir_50_I = mp_simulator(all_specs$sir, 50L, "I")
+  , sir_age_10_infection = mp_simulator(all_specs$sir_age, 10L, "infection")
 )
 
 for (obj in names(sims)) {
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-calibrator-traj.R b/tests/testthat/test-calibrator-traj.R
index 8a31733d..9b8f97b0 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-calibrator-traj.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-calibrator-traj.R
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-library(macpan2); library(testthat); library(dplyr); library(tidyr); library(ggplot2)
 test_that("bad outputs give warnings", {
   sir = mp_tmb_library("starter_models", "sir", package = "macpan2")
   expect_warning(
@@ -60,3 +59,29 @@ test_that("trajectories specified with likelihood distributions end up in calibr
   )
   
 })
+
+test_that("missing required columns in calibration data throw errors", {
+  sir = "SPEC-sir.rds" |> test_cache_read()
+  sir_sims = "TRAJ-sir_5_state.rds" |> test_cache_read()
+  err = "Supplied data did not contain a column called"
+  expect_error(mp_tmb_calibrator(sir, data = select(sir_sims, -time)), err)
+  expect_error(mp_tmb_calibrator(sir, data = select(sir_sims, -matrix)), err)
+  expect_error(mp_tmb_calibrator(sir, data = select(sir_sims, -value)), err)
+})
+
+test_that("vector-valued trajectories can be calibrated to", {
+  skip("Skipping because rbind_time is not working on non-scalars")
+  sir_age = "SPEC-sir_age.rds" |> test_cache_read()
+  sir_age_sims = "TRAJ-sir_age_10_infection.rds" |> test_cache_read()
+  sir_age_cal = mp_tmb_calibrator(sir_age
+    , data = sir_age_sims
+    , par = "tau"
+    , traj = "infection"
+    , outputs = "sim_infection"
+  )
+  sir_age_cal
+  expect_equal(
+      sir_age_cal$cal_spec |> mp_simulator(10, "infection") |> mp_trajectory() |> pull(value)
+    , sir_age_cal$cal_spec |> mp_simulator(10, "sim_infection") |> mp_final() |> pull(value)
+  )
+})