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PoS(11th EVN Symposium)070 http://pos.sissa.it g g that a healthy acilities in an integrated reAlike Licence. search & Development (R&D) via Joint g in thein qualityand quantity of thescientific rs rs for the SKA in its Transnational Access infrastructures in synergy with ALMA and d prepared for these radio telescopes. includes facilitation of research via dedicated

RadioNet3 the Creative Commons Creative Attribution-NonCommercial-Shathe programme, briefly described here, aims at ensurin

RadioNet3 coordinates all Europe's leading radio astronomy f [email protected] RadioNet3 scientific and technicalcommunity will beready an research of European astronomers. cooperation to achieve transformational improvement Programme. Furthermore, it aims to stimulate new Re Research Activities for the already existing radio Network Network Activities. It also includes four pathfinde SKA. The Speaker Copyright owned by the author(s)the Copyright ownedby under terms ofthe

 Bordeaux, France ______* RadioNet3 Franco Mantovani Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie Aufdem Hügel69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany E-mail:

October 9-12, 2012 11thEuropean VLBI Network Symposium Users & Meetin

PoS(11th EVN Symposium)070 is a

RadioNet3 RadioNet3 ic ic activities . Out of its 1 www.radionet- RadioNet3 Franco Franco Mantovani bodies: the Governing h h infrastructures in Europe tutions tutions to scientific support The The Coordinator, Prof. Anton

Millimeter/submillimeter Millimeter/submillimeter Array xecutive xecutive Committee, especially in es, es, Universities, Institutes, and aseline aseline Interferometry. It aims at y y investments from partners, will be 2004 and 2009. , Contract no. 283393), builds on the initiative, funded by the European eader, eader, Project Scientist, and Project the the overall management of he he following, I will briefly summarize amme amme will absorb 44% of the available gy gy with ALMA and with the SKA; -Chairman. , from 2012 to 2015. The EC contribution the Management Team. Management the ong-term ong-term perspective. Successor of two tivities 7%, and Management 9%. 7%, Management tivities and ities; ities; b) secure a long term perspective on Coordinator, Chairman of the Board, Joint s follows: a) provide and facilitate to follows:s a) and access provide ve into the Governing Board d d the European Commission. He is assisted eveloped eveloped in the ASTRONET Strategic Plan onomy; onomy; c) stimulate new R&D activities for imental possibilities which will be offered by willoffered be which imental possibilities

RadioNet3 . . For more information consult 2 2 RadioNet3 takes a leap forward as it stimulates new scientif

RadioNet3 consortium consortium is structured according to the following provides and facilitates access to the key researc coordinates Europe’s radio leading astronomy insticoordinates RadioNet3

RadioNet3 . . work by the Management Team, who also assists the E RadioNet3 The The above financial resources, provided by EU and b The The

eu.org 1.1 RadioNet3 the Europe's most powerful radio-astronomical facil scientific and technical developments in radio astr addressed to addressed achieve that summarized begoals can a the already existing radio d) contribute to the implementation infrastructures of the vision d in syner for European Astronomy. for European the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and Atacama Large Consortium of 27 Observatories partners from all over comprising Europe and beyond. funding In governance, goals, t and activities Agenci of offullofwithtaking new goal the advantage exper (ALMA). The duration isof programme the four years is of 9,500,000 EUR. The Transnational Access progr funds, Joint Research Activities 40%, Networking Ac Activities funds,JointResearch 1.1.1 Governance Governance 1.1.1 preceding preceding programmes, integrating these facilities and resources with a l for advanced radio astronomy, including Very Long B success success of its two preceding programmes launched in Commission Commission under the Seven Framework Programme (FP7 research research by all European astronomers. The Board, the Coordinator, the Executive Committee and Executive the Coordinator,theBoard, Each participating institution has one representati

1.1.2 Goals

RadioNet3 1. Introduction members the members a elected Chairman and Board has a Vice Zensus, Zensus, is the intermediary between the partners an in its the execution of the Board decisions as well as in activities. activities. Members of the Executive Committee are: Research Research Activities leaders, Transnational Access l Manager. Manager. PoS(11th EVN Symposium)070 operated Franco Franco Mantovani -MERLIN (UK) and NRAO e is dedicated to stimulate full

-MERLIN) is an interferometer array e 95 GHz) with versatility. ─ RadioNet3 cseconds. cseconds. The TNA programme aims at MERLIN d d range of frequencies from 10 MHz to 1 - rs rs of SKA, namely: the European VLBI of the use of facilities, from preparation

European VLBI Network Network (EVN) VLBI European of of radio telescopes spread provides across England. It radio polarimetry imaging, spectroscopy resolution with and and centimetre wavelengths. 10-150 microJansky sensitivity milliarcsecond at telescopes (U.S.). Signals from each telescope are correlated at a central processing facility at the Joint Institutefor VLBIin Europe(JIVE).

e The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network ( Effelsberg Radio 100-m Telescope The 100-m radio telescope is one of the largest fully steerable antennas on Earth and combines superb sensitivity and wide frequency coverage (0.3 The EVN is a telescopes distributed across network of including the radio Russia, Europe China, Puerto and South beyond, Rico. Africa observations with and It regularly conducts joint is worth mentioning that four of the TNA es. es. European users are provided with a high rs and thereby allows European astronomers to astronomers European allows thereby rs and

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. . It offers access to several telescopes and arrays open open skies policy -MERLIN, LOFAR, and WSRT. and LOFAR, -MERLIN, e

facilities are: The TNA © N. Tacken / MPIfR MPIfR / N. Tacken © © JIVE / Earth and Moon Viewer / Moon Viewer Earth JIVE and © The The Transnational Access (TNA) programme of © UMAN / STFC / UMAN STFC © by by European organisations, covering an unprecedente THz, THz, and resolving power from arcminutes to milliar barrie logistical and technical,financial removing take full advantage of these world-leading faciliti level of professional support covering all through aspects observations and to data interpretation. It Network, facilities facilities presented below are considered pathfinde

RadioNet3 2. Transnational Access exploitation of an

PoS(11th EVN Symposium)070

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focal-plane array Franco Franco Mantovani Radio Synthesis Telescope Westerbork (WSRT) The WSRT array has fourteen 25 providing m almost antennas continuous spectral coverage at decimeter and centimeter wavelengths. field The of view of the array will soon be increased with a factor 25, by placing a (PdBI) Interferometer Bure Plateau de The PdBI has six 15 antennasm equipped with low-noise heterodyne receivers for 3, 2, 1, and 0.8 mm wavelengths. By doubling its number of antennas, interferometer IRAM into an instrument even will more Extended Millimetre Array) by 2018. named powerful transform NOEMA the (NOrthern (LOFAR) Array LowFrequency LOFAR is a distributed stations array operating at low frequencies, of 10 40 antenna (SRT) Telescope Sardinia Radio The SRT is a parabolic 64 m diameter dish with the largest active primary The surface frequency in coverage Europe. is between 300 and 100 GHz with single- and MHz multi-beam state- of-the art receivers. in in the focus of Apertif). each parabolic dish (project MHz. All stations fibres areto the central data processing and connectedarchive by facilities. optical

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RadioNet3

PoS(11th EVN Symposium)070 m m and 37- oordination oordination µ Franco Franco Mantovani aims at equiping – – The field of radio RadioNet3 m m bolometer arrays, plus a 4- µ – – The ALMA Regional Centre QueSERA) QueSERA) – The training communication, and rts user visits to the seven nodes of foster interaction and collaboration © IRAM IRAM © conferences and training events. There ical ical workshops to promote interactions ists ists involved in the development and ever appropriate. ever ommunity. of the radio astronomical facilities and ALMA and SKA are expected to become entres entres of excellence, established to support ies ies are undergoing important upgrades. s s among the partners. SWG organises and s, workshops and meetings. meetings. and workshops s,

at Pico Veleta Telescope 30- IRAM m (PV) The PV 30 m telescope has been designedobservations for at 3, 2 and 1 mm. powerful millimetre It single dish is telescope in the the most world. (APEX) Pathfinder Experiment Atacama APEX is a observing 12 with 295-channel m 870 sub-mm radio telescope channel heterodyne receiver at 230, 500 GHz, and 1.3 THz. 350, and channel 350 nts nts a key in issue these facilities keeping at a ronomy ronomy facilities. New Skills ensures that the

RadioNet3 5 5 – – Through this NA,

– The main goal to– ofis The main this ensure goal NA a central c

The The Networking Activities (NAs) of © ESO © ESO © IRAM IRAM © ambitions is the aim of this NA. NA. ofaim the isambitionsthis (SWG) Group Science Working Better integration, representation and advertising of dissemination of knowledge and scientific result astronomers to exploit current and future radio ast wher are employed reductiondatamethods innovative scientists. and engineers among operational. Additionally, some traditional facilit conference science-related radiosupports astronomy Mobility for ALMA Regional Centre Users (MARCUs) Forum Technical (ERATec)Radio European Astronomy scientific interaction between engineers operation radio ofinstruments represe astronomical and scient world class technical level. ERATec organises techn astronomy astronomy is set to blossom over the coming decade. New Skills for astronomers (New Skills) (ARC) is a network of (sub-) millimetre astronomy c c userthe network strengthens and ARC European the the European user community for ALMA. This NA suppo

3. Networking Activities

RadioNet3 among astronomers and engineers, through workshops, are six NAs in the programme, namely: inprogramme, the NAs are six Questions on Structuring European Radio Astronomy ( PoS(11th EVN Symposium)070

Franco Franco Mantovani create optimized [email protected] ie, Bonn, Germany Bonn, ie, Germany lable, lable, high-performance – The primary objective primary – The in lities. lities. AETHER will develop aim to stimulate engineering ETHER) ences ences in order to safe-guard this atasets in an Open-source in an Open-source atasets grant agreement No 283393No agreement grant lines lines that improve the capabilities of To this end, the Spectrum Management o o extend the performance and scope of for radio astronomical applications. The lysis lysis methods. There are four JRAs in the RadioNet3 of the scientific use of radio astronomy wide bandwidth / high-bitrate VLBI back- ration of astronomical instruments (notably eld a maximum gain sensitivity, bandwidth d emerging radio telescopes. radio telescopes. d emerging funding from the European Commission Commission European fromfunding the – – This JRA will develop wide-band dm/cm-

– The objective of this NA is to keep the radio 6 6 Governing Bodies: Governing Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, e-mail: Max-Planck-Institutfür Radioastronomie, – – The scientific and technical goal of Hilado is to RadioNet3 Patrick Charlot, Université Bordeaux I, I, FranceBordeaux Université Charlot,Patrick Anton Zensus, Max-Planck-Institut fürRadioastronom Max-Planck-Institut Zensus, Anton

Rafael Bachiller, Istituto Geografico National, SpaNational, Geografico Istituto Rafael Bachiller,

– This JRA will create an FPGA-based, generic, sca 2

The The Joint Research Activities (JRAs) of Coordinator: Coordinator: Chairman: Vice-Chairman: Team: Management Leading persons inpersons Leading

is to develop a new generation ALMA, of instrumentation and t of innovative heterodyne large detectors and devices that yi existing European for speed mapping and 1 THz, ALMA. beyond mm/sub-mm faci Astronomical processing D of Large Highperformance environment (Hilado) the SKA) till end of the year 2015. 2015. year the SKA)thetillof end (A Receivers HEterodyne Terahertz European Advanced aim aim is to have the platform ready for the next gene computing computing platform with several innovative features research research and to develop new data processing and ana programme: UniBoard 1 Acknowledgement results has received to leading these The research Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) under Programme Framework Seventh

(RadioNet3) 4. Joint Research Activities RadioNet3 Radio Astronomical Spectrum Management astronomy astronomy frequency bands free environment for fundamental of astronomical research. man-made interacts interfer with regulatory bodies for the bands. frequency protection Developments Developments In VLBI Astronomy (DIVA) receivers with at least 4:1 frequency bandwidth and prototype prototype software and demonstrator an for processing existing packages software planned currently pipe ends.