On April 10, 2017, the current RadioNet programme has passed its first 100 days of operation. I take the opportunity to give a brief summary of noteworthy steps we have made:
The Board kicked-off the new programme on January 12, 2017 in Berlin. We were particularly pleased to host Keji Adunmo, the RadioNet Project Officer, and our guests Gerry Gilmore and Gudrun Pebody of OPTICON, Nigel Mason of Europlanet, and Phil Diamond of SKA. The Board elected for the next 2 years Tiziana Venturi of INAF as the Board Chair, and Leonardo Testi of ESO as the Vice Chair.
The JRAs RINGS and BRAND EVN met with their partners at their Kick-off meetings on January 8 and January 18, 2017.
The JRA AETHRA held the kick-off meeting on April 11-12, 2017 in Grenoble.
The NA and TA leaders met and agreed on the processes of their activities on January 13, 2017 in Berlin.
The first calls for RadioNet financial support for scientific, technical, and training events and for staff exchanges were issued on January 14, 2017. From this call, a total of 13 scientific, 4 technical, and 5 training events will be funded. RadioNet will also support staff exchanges of 4 persons for visiting INAF in Bologna, IGN in Yebes and OSO in Onsala. The next call for financial support will be issued on June 1, 2017.
We have collected more than 100 expressions of interest to receive RadioNet news. We expect this number will grow and we plan to include (upon request) the participants of all events supported by RadioNet.
Our EU project officer Keji Adunmo is currently on leave. Until her return, Darko Karacic represents her. We are already in touch with him and we will meet in person after the Exec teleconference.
The networking task SPOOR will deal with a sustainability plan for European radio astronomy and future RadioNet activities. The SPOOR group was elected by the Board in Berlin and the first meeting will be on May 23, 2017. All Board members are welcome to attend.
We now have in place our new wiki (https://radiowiki.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de) and the new website (www.radionet-org.eu).
In short: Three very eventful months of the project have passed and all teams are in place, initial decisions and agreements have been reached and our procedures are well defined. At this point I am confident that we have laid basis for another successful RadioNet work programme. And we are looking forward to working with all of you in the coming months.
Please send any suggestions to radionet@mpifr.de.
Anton Zensus
RadioNet Coordinator
