European Radio Astronomy Consortium

Newsletter Issue 6/2022

ESA: GAIA´s data release 3 – news from the Milky Way

On June 13, 2022, ESA’s Gaia mission released its new treasure trove of data about Milky Way. Astronomers describe strange ‘starquakes’, stellar DNA, asymmetric motions and other fascinating insights in this most detailed Milky Way survey to date.

Gaia is ESA’s mission to create the most accurate and complete multi-dimensional map of the Milky Way. Gaia’s data release 3 contains new and improved details for almost two billion stars in our galaxy. Read the ESA article here.

Image: shows four sky maps made with the new ESA Gaia data released on 13 June 2022. © ESA/Gaia/DPAC; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

NIAS-Lorentz Program calls for coordinators for the NIAS-Lorentz Theme Group

The NIAS-Lorentz Program calls for coordinators for the NIAS-Lorentz Theme Group (NLTG) 2023/2024. The deadline for application with a pre-proposal is September 1, 2022.

The NIAS-Lorentz Program is a collaboration established in 2006 by NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Amsterdam) and the Lorentz Center (workshop center for all scientific disciplines, Leiden). It promotes innovative interdisciplinary research that brings together perspectives from the social sciences and humanities on the one hand and the natural and technological sciences on the other. This program gives special attention to topics of societal importance that require extensive collaboration across traditional scientific boundaries in order to progress.

Information about the NLTG call as well as the partners of the NIAS-Lorentz Program can be found here.

ORP lanced a questionnaire to find out the users´ needs for astronomical infrastructures

The Opticon RadioNet Pilot (ORP) project brings together two mature communities, optical/IR and radio/sub-mm to work towards the harmonization and improvement of services of astronomical infrastructures and of the access to them. ORP offers access to many of the world’s premier optical/IR and radio telescopes and arrays and aims to develop various services to aid scientific users and facilities.

In order to help fulfil the expectations of the user communities, ORP has lanced a short survey to help assess needs. You are invited to complete the 3-minute-questionnaire, which will be also distributed among participants of the EAS 2022 in Valencia.

Your resonse can be provided here.
All responses are anonymous.

SKAO news

• Switzerland formalised its membership of the SKAO during the World Economic Forum. The event was attended by the State Secretary Martina Hirayama and Prof. Martin Vetterli, President of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

• The IAU’s new Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (CPS) - co-hosted by the SKAO and NOIRLab - formally started operating earlier this month. On this note – would it be possible to feature its logo somewhere in the newsletter?

• Registration has now opened for the Public Awareness of Research Infrastructures (PARI) conference hosted by the SKAO in July. The conference aims to bring together anyone involved in the communications activities of research infrastructures to exchange best practices and lessons learned in communicating to the public. Attendance is possible in-person and virtually.

POLICY NEWS

EC: Page with all information on lump sum funding in Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe uses lump sum funding to reduce administration and financial errors and to make the programme simpler by removing the need to report actual costs. This makes the access to the programme easier, especially for small organisations and newcomers.

Here you find the EC page with all information on lump sum funding in Horizon Europe. It is updated regularly to provide the latest state of play.

European Council: guidance on international cooperation, open science and European missions

On June 10, 2022 EU ministers responsible for research today adopted three sets of conclusions establishing political guidelines on international cooperation in the field of research and innovation, on the promotion of open science policies and on the implementation of European missions. Read more here.

Open call: MSCA Doctoral Networks 2022

MSCA Doctoral Networks are indeed open to the participation of organizations from third countries, in view of fostering strategic international partnerships for the training and exchange of researchers. These doctoral programmes will respond to well-identified needs in various R&I areas, expose the researchers to the academic and non-academic sectors, and offer training in research-related, as well as transferable skills and competences relevant for innovation and long-term employability.

See here information on how to apply an follow this link to learn more about MSCA Doctoral Networks.

Deadline: Nove,ber 15, 2022

Ukraine’s association agreement to Horizon Europe and Euratom Research and Training Programmes enters into force

In June 2022 the agreement associating Ukraine to Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme (2021-2027) and the Euratom Research and Training Programme (2021-2025) entered into force, following its ratification by Ukraine. The Ukrainian research and innovation actors can now fully participate in these programmes on equal terms with entities from the EU Members States. More here.

ACCESS OPPORTUNITIES

European ALMA Regional Centre

The European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) provides the interface between the ALMA project and the European science community. The ARC is staffed by scientists with expertise in radio astronomy and interferometry and it supports its users throughout the lifetime of a project, from proposal preparation to data analysis. Users that want to visit an ARC node for a face-to-face visit can apply for funding through the ORP project.

The Westerbork Apertif Long Term Archive (ALTA) is a brand new facility offering to the world-wide astronomical community free virtual access to data and scientific products produced from all sky surveys of the Northern sky that will be conducted with the new Apertif frontend of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), as well as tools to query, further exploit and perform data mining of these products adaptable to diverse research goals. The access/funding offered through the ORP project.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

• SKAO - Technical Information Engineer - position- deadline 04.07.2022; Payroll accountment - position - deadline 08.07.2022; HR advisor - position - deadline 08.07.2022; Standards Engineer - position - deadline 10.08.2022

• NAOJ – Assistant Professor Solar-C project – position – deadline 08.07.2022

• DIAS – Assistant Professor Position in Seismology – position – deadline 09.07.2022

• JIV-ERIC – Director – position – deadline 31.07.2022

• CNRS - Tenure Track Position: GPU4ASTR/Real-time architectures for new-generation large astronomical observatories – position – deadline 31.08.2022

• ESO – Internships: Science Journalism – position – deadline 31.12.2022

Check also EURAXESS