European Radio Astronomy Consortium

Newsletter Issue 12/2022

RADIOBLOCKS project

The RADIOBLOCKS project will start on March 1, 2023. It is coordinated by JIVE ERIC and including major European research infrastructures for radio astronomy, together with partners from industry and academia, has been granted 10 M€ by the European Commission to develop “common building blocks” for technological solutions beyond state-of-the-art, that will enable a broad range of new science and enhance European scientific competitiveness. Read more here.

Agnieszka Słowikowska appointed as new JIVE Director

Agnieszka Słowikowska has been appointed as the next JIVE Director, to start in January 2023.

Agnieszka (Aga) Słowikowska is currently Associate Professor, Institute of Astronomy, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, NCU (Poland). For the last three years she was the Deputy Director for Research Infrastructure of the Institute of Astronomy NCU. Among many international responsibilities, she is a member of the European VLBI Network Consortium Board of Directors as well as the current chair of the Opticon RadioNet Pilot project's Board. Read more.

ALMA NEWS

Restart of ALMA Cycle 9 observations and Cycle 10 pre-announcement status

Regarding Cycle 9, ALMA has resumed performing PI science observations following the cyberattack. The end-to-end data acquisition and processing workflow and software were successfully re-tested prior to the restart.

Regarding Cycle 10, due to the disruption caused by the cyberattack, the Cycle 10 pre-announcement will now be issued in the week of January 16, 2023.

For any comments or concerns, please contact your local ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) via the ALMA Helpdesk.

Find all information here.

ALMA announces Joint Proposal agreements for JWST, VLA, and the VLT

The ALMA observatory is pleased to announce that it has entered into Joint Proposal agreements with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the European Southern Observatory (ESO) for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) for the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA).

Joint Proposals are dedicated to scientific projects that require observations with two or more observatories to achieve their scientific goals.

More details on how to apply for Joint Proposals will be provided in announcements by each Observatory. Any questions on Joint Proposals can be directed to the ALMA Helpdesk.

SKAO NEWS

SKA Observatory celebrates start of telescope construction in Australia and South Africa

Land agreement with native title holders celebrated as key milestone for SKA-Low telescope

5. ESO Summer Research Programme

From July 3 to August 11, 2023, ESO will host in Garching/DE the forth Summer Research Programme. This fully-funded programme is an opportunity for university students interested in astronomy/astrophysics, who are not yet enrolled in a PhD programme, to obtain research experience alongside astronomers based at ESO Headquarters (HQ) in Garching.

Applications from promising university students from any country are accepted, although priority will be given to students from ESO Member States, Strategic Partners (Australia) and the Host State (Chile).

More information here.

Image: © ESO

ASTRON-JIVE 2023 Summer Research Programme Opens Applications

The Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE) and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) announce up to 7 grants for students to participate in the ASTRON/JIVE 2023 Summer Research Programme.

Deadline for applications: February 1, 2023 23:59 CET.

More here.

POLICY NEWS

Open consultation on the past, present and future of the European research and innovation programmes 2014-2027

On December 1, 2022, the EC launched the largest public consultation ever held on the past, present and future of the EU’s Horizon research and innovation programmes 2014-2027.

For 12 weeks, stakeholders are encouraged to reply to multiple-choice and open questions and are invited to submit position papers. Stakeholders will be able to share their views on the performance of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, as well as shaping the strategic orientations for the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027. The consultation will close in February 2023.

Find more details here.

ERC Scientific Council decides changes to the evaluation forms and processes for the 2024 calls

During its December plenary meeting the ERC Scientific Council decided on changes to the ERC’s application forms and evaluation procedures for the 2024 calls. Templates will be combined and simplified and applicants will be able to add short narrative descriptions to explain the information provided. More here.

Horizon Europe info day - Research Infrastructures

The Info Day on Dec 6, 2022 focused on the 2023 calls of the Work programme 2023-2024, for its different destinations:

• INFRADEV – aiming to develop, consolidate and optimise the European research infrastructures landscape, and maintain global leadership

• INFRASERV – offering Research Infrastructures services to support health research, accelerate the green transition and digital transformation, and advance frontier knowledge

• INFRATECH – targeting the development of the next generation of scientific instrumentation, tools, methods, and advanced digital solutions for Research Infrastructures

• INFRAEOSC – aiming to enable an operational, open and FAIR European Open Science Cloud ecosyste

In addition, the Info Day offered horizontal information on the submission, evaluation and management of the 2023 Research Infrastructures calls.

ACCESS OPPORTUNITIES

European VLBI Network: Call for Proposals open

The call for proposals for the European VLBI Network (EVN) is open. EVN access and travel support is possible through the OPTICON RadioNet Pilot project (ORP). All regular proposals should be submitted through the Northstar submission tool.

Submission deadline: February 01, 2023 (16:00 UTC)

100-m Effelsberg radio telescope: Open call for proposals

The call for proposals of the 100-m radio telescope (Effelsberg/DE) of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy is open.

Access/funding is offered through the ORP project.

Find the call here.

Submission deadline: February 02, 2023 (15:00 UT)

Image: © N. Tacken (MPIfR)

Open call: Observatory of Yebes

In this call, the Observatory of Yebes (IGN) invites astronomers around the world to submit scientific proposals for the first semester of 2023. This call is oriented to single dish observations and VLBI observations not included in the EVN or GMVA calls.

Submission deadline: January 16, 2023 (16:00 UTC)

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) offers 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.

LOFAR Long Term Archive (LTA) is a long-established archive and access facility supporting the international LOFAR telescope. It is currently the largest radio astronomical archive in the world already exceeding 45 PB from LOFAR’s past 10 years of operations. The LTA provides a central and key resource for all observed LOFAR astronomical science programs where the data become public within 12 months of first creation. The access/funding is offered through the ORP project.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

• University of California - Assistant Professor in Physics and Astronomy – position – 31.12.2022

• University of Manchester - Research Associate in Pulsar and Fast Transients Software Development and Research for the SKA – position – deadline 04.01.2023

• SKAO – Signal Processing Engineer – position – deadline 06.01.2023, Management Accountant - position - dseadline 09.01.2023, Electronic Engineer - position - deadline 03.02.2023

• ESO – deadline 05.01.2023, ALMA Regional Centre Astronomer – position – deadline 10.01.2023, Engineering Internship – position – deadline 31.12.2023, Internship: Science Communication – position – deadline 31.12.2023

• University of Bonn – W2 tenure-track professorship in astronomy/astrophysics – position – deadline 15.03.2023

• CSIRO – Observatory Project Officer – position – deadline 17.01.2023, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Manager – SKA-Low Telescope – position – deadline 22.01.2023

Check also EURAXESS

EVENTS

• The SARAO / Breakthrough Listen MeerKAT Grand Tour Data Science Workshop – January 15-21, 2023 – Makhanda/ZA

• Peer Review Under Review – February 6-10, 2023 – Garching/DE

• 2023 ORP Proposal Writing School – 20 February-20 March 2023 (on Mondays) – virtual

• IAU Symposium 378: Black hole winds at all scales – Haifa/IL, March 12-16, 2023

• IAU Symposium (IAUS) 380 Cosmic Masers: Proper Motion toward the Next-Generation Large Projects – March 20-24, 2023 – Kagoshima City/JP (hybrid)

• New Eyes on the Universe: SKA & ngVLA – April 30-May 5, 2023 – Vancouver/CA

• Bologna-VLBI: Life begins at 40! New frontiers and scientific challenges with enhanced frequency/time/space – May 22-26, 2023 – Bologna/IT

• Transient Universe 2023 – May 30-June 9, 2023 – Corsica/FR

• CASA VLBI Workshop – June 5-9, 2023 – Dwingeloo/NL

• EAS 2023 – July 10-14, 2023 – Krakow/PL

• IAU Symposium 365: Dynamics of Solar and Stellar Convection Zones and Atmospheres – August 21-25, 2023 – Moscow/RU

• European ALMA school - September 04-08, 2023 – Manchester/UK

• ALMA at 10 years: Past, Present, and Future – December 4-8, 2023 – Puerto Varas/CL