Europe's radio and optical astronomy communities team up in new EC-funded project

A new project to enhance cooperation between European astronomy facilities and promote transnational access among them in which SKAO is a partner kicked off on 1 March.

The new four-year project, called OPTICON RadioNet Pilot (ORP), brings together the two flagship communities of advanced radio and optical/infrared astronomy in Europe through a funding commitment of 15 million euros by the European Commission.

Thirty-seven partners are part of the project, among them SKAO and 13 radio astronomical institutes operating world-class European radio astronomy facilities, including a number of SKA pathfinders such as the e-Merlin network in the UK, the international LOFAR telescope and the Effelsberg telescope in Germany.

“This project is largely about sharing and opening up access to existing European radio and optical astronomy facilities,” says Thijs Geurts, SKAO Senior External Relations Policy Officer. “As an international observatory, this is also an opportunity for SKAO to advocate common interests such as radio frequency interference (RFI) protection and help define a broad astronomy strategy amongst our European partners.”

The French CNRS coordinates the overall project, while the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy serves as scientific coordinator for the radio astronomy partners.

The ORP project will build on previous successful programmes of transnational access to telescopes and arrays in Europe but will go further towards the harmonisation of national and European procedures, providing free reciprocal access to some of the best ground-based telescopes as well as training and support in operating the complex infrastructures.

Source: RadioNet & MPIFR