Welcome to ALMA and the European ALMA Regional Centre!

ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) is the world's largest ground-based facility for observations in the millimeter/submillimeter regime located on the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters altitude in northern Chile. It enables transformational research into the physics of the cold Universe, probes the first stars and galaxies, and directly images the formation of planets. ALMA comprises a giant array of fifty 12-m antennas, which can be configured to achieve baselines up to 16 km. It is equipped with state-of-the-art receivers that cover all the atmospheric windows up to 1 THz. In addition, a compact array of 7-m and 12-m antennas greatly enhance ALMA's ability to image extended sources.

The European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) provides the interface between the ALMA project and the European science community. It supports its users mainly in the areas of proposal preparation, observation preparation, data reduction, and data analysis.

Below you can read the latest Announcements from the European ARC Network.. More details and up-to-date information can be found in the News section and the ALMA Science Portal.

Announcing the Second European ALMA School, January 2026

Published: 25 Apr 2025

Allegro, the ALMA Regional Center node in the Netherlands, is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the second European ALMA School on 26 - 30 January 2026. The School will be held at Leiden University in the Netherlands and will feature a week of hands-on training in ALMA data processing and analysis, guided by world experts from the European ARC network. A website with more information about the location, school program, and how to register will open in June.

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I-TRAIN #24: VLBI Part II: obtaining and calibrating VLBI data with phased ALMA

Published: 25 Apr 2025

The European ARC Network invites users to a second I-TRAIN on VLBI data using ALMA as a phased array on 16 May at 10:00 CET (link to Zoom).

This tutorial will provide an introduction to accessing and dealing with VLBI data from networks which include ALMA as a phased array. We will first cover accessing phased data and what is on the ALMA archive.  Then ALMA's role in the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA), how to obtain PI and/or archival GMVA data, and how to calibrate them will be discussed. Finally, we'll look at EHT data, how to obtain those publicly available datasets, and how to calibrate them.

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Pre-announcement for next call for ALMA development studies and information meeting

Published: 25 Apr 2025

ESO is pleased to announce that it will issue a call for proposals for ALMA development studies for ALMA upgrades in the course of the month of May, with an expected deadline at the end of August. This call will only be open to ESO member state institutes. Full details of the call will be announced in the May ARC newsletter. ESO will organize an information day on Tuesday 27 May 2025 (in-person registration deadline: 15 May 2025). 

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ALMA Cycle 12 Call for Proposals

Published: 30 Mar 2025

ALMA Cycle 12 Call for Proposals for scientific observations is now OPEN! 

ALMA Cycle 12 is currently scheduled for observations from October 2025 to September 2026. Users of any nationality or affiliation are invited to submit proposals before the deadline of 15:00 UT on Thursday 24 April 2025.

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Cycle 12 Call for Proposals preparation events

Published: 29 Mar 2025

The European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) network is organizing virtual and in-person proposal preparation events related to the Cycle 12 Call for Proposals across Europe.  A complete overview of the activities and information about participating can be found here. 

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