The Phase II submission period is now open for all PIs to submit the science goals of their accepted Cycle 7 projects. The Observing tool has also been updated with the Phase II version. Your project may also be required to pass a technical feasibility assessment as part of the Phase II process in order to be added to the observing queue. Further information on the Phase 2 process, including how you can delegate the Phase II preparation to one of your colleagues, is available in the Phase II Quickstart Guide at http://almascience.org/documents-and-tools/cycle7/phaseii-userguide.

Subsequent to the ALMA Cycle 7 proposal result outcomes, ALMA kindly requests the participation of all PIs to submit feedback on the consensus reports received informing them of their ALMA Cycle 7 results. One survey should be completed per proposal submitted.

The surveys are strictly confidential and anonymous, but provide the means to gauge and improve the reviewing process. The deadline for completing the survey is 5 September 2019. To complete your survey please follow the link here.

The ALMA Cycle 7 results were announced on July 23, 2019, with almost 400 high-priotiry proposals assigned for the upcoming observations. Cycle 7 observations will begin on Octorber, 1, 2019 and have a total of 4300 hours allocated to the 12 metre main array. The newly accepted A and B ranked proposals will have 4033 hours dedicated time while the remainig 267 hours is allotted for the carried-over Cycle-6 A rated projects. For more details on the execution time distribution by region and sciecne catagory visit the ALMA Observatory.

Since May 2014, the Institute for Astrophysics and Space Science (Lisbon node, IA) is officially part of the European Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) support structure as a Centre of Expertise (CoE). This status was granted by ESO after the recognition of IA team’s capability to support the community with the use of ALMA, in addition to the already existent EU ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) nodes.

PACE advertise a 2-year ALMA related post-doc position

The deadline for proposal submission for Cycle 7 was 19 April 2018. 1785 proposals were submitted, including 14 Large Programmes. This is a slight decrease from Cycle 6, although the number of hours requested on the main array is 4.5 more than offered. The oversubscription rate remains high (~6 on the 12-metre array for the European applicants). Detailed proposal submission statistics are available in a dedicated report. The report provides a summary of items such as the number of submitted proposals and time requested, subscription rates, and comparisons with the number of hours requested in previous Cycles.

High-Resolution Spectroscopy in the Era of ALMA, JWST and ELT to be held 22-26 July, at the Sexten Centre for Astrophysics, Italy

The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers working with one of the leading facilities available today (ALMA) in order to plan for the next generation (JWST, ELT). Key to the motivation for this workshop is that astronomers must harness the high spatial resolution spectroscopic capabilities of each of these facilities, in a multi-wavelength approach, in order to reach their scientific goals.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration will present the groundbreaking results on 10 April 2019 in simultaneous press conferences worldwide.

The EU conference will be streamed online on the ESO website, by the ERC, and on social media. Questions will also be taken from social media using the hashtag #AskEHTeu.

A total of six major press conferences will be held simultaneously around the globe in Belgium (Brussels, English), Chile (Santiago, Spanish), Shanghai (Mandarin), Japan (Tokyo, Japanese), Taipei (Mandarin), and USA (Washington, D.C., English).

ALMA Development Workshop to be held 3-5 June 2019 at ESO, Garching, Germany

In order to keep ALMA at the forefront of technology, all ALMA partners have a continuous development programme. ESO strives to closely involve the member state institutes in this programme by issuing calls for development studies every three years (see the ALMA European Development webpage).

The next European call is expected to be issued in 2019. To optimally develop the ideas for new studies – especially in the context of the ALMA Development Roadmap, ESO is organizing a workshop in Garching from 3-5 June 2019. This builds on the on the success of the 2016 ALMA Developers’ Workshop.