OPTICON FP7 (2013-2016) WP13 - Enhancing community skills - Integrating Communities
WP leader: Michel Dennefeld (IAP, Paris )
The objective of this Network is to collect expertise and transmit the skills necessary to efficiently use state-of-the-art European astronomical infrastructures, to develop the user community widely over Europe and to enable new communities to participate in the development of the new Large Scale Facilities. More specifically, it intends to:
- Train young researchers in observing techniques and data reduction early in their careers
- Provide a “Life long training” opportunities in new instrumentation for already established astronomers
- Exchange experience and good practice among the participants (individuals and observatories), and ensure the participating observatories offer front-line instrumentation for training.
- Address the concerns about scarcity of skills in specific technical and scientific areas
- Enable the integration of new, or less favoured, European communities.
Training, and Education are, by their very nature, activities where continuity and repeatability are essential: every year, a new generation of students has to be trained. This WP builds on previous experience, and thus incorporates the key-features which have proven so successful in the past. The activities take the form of technical schools or workshops organised in leading institutes or observatories; short term exchanges of engineers or scientists; and conferences organised in the new member states to raise awareness of the new techniques and topics which underlie the construction of the new Large Scale Infrastructures.
The programme builds on previous experience with the NEON schools, which has shown a huge demand for such activities, it implements previous recommendations and includes a range of new activities such as special conferences suitable for early stage researchers from non-traditional communities..
