Observations with the VLT, VLTI, and ALMA have pioneered exoplanet science over the past decade. With upcoming results from ESA missions such as Gaia, PLATO, and Ariel, exoplanet research is entering a transformative era of population-scale characterisation surveys. This workshop will bring the community together to explore how current ESO facilities together with powerful archival resources, can best complement exoplanet demographics, atmospheres, and planet formation at the dawn of population-scale studies.

ESO is delighted to announce the upcoming conference Illuminating the Active Universe: Multi-Wavelength and Multi-Messenger Insights into AGN. The conference will be held from in Garching on 14-17 September 2026, on the occasion of the retirement of Paolo Padovani (ESO). It will examine the evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei research from early work on unified schemes of radio-loud sources and BL Lac samples to recent developments in multi-wavelength surveys and multi-messenger observations. 

The second release of SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument) data processed by the High-Contrast Data Centre (HC-DC) is now available in the ESO Science Archive Facility. SPHERE is designed for high-contrast imaging, low-resolution spectroscopy, and polarimetric characterisation of extrasolar planetary systems. This release provides reduced IRDIS imaging data acquired between ESO Periods P95 and P109 (April 2015 – September 2022), including SPHERE consortium Guaranteed Time Observations.

As part of the "VLT beyond 2030" process, ESO is issuing a call for white papers for new instruments for VLT/I, with a deadline of 15 January 2027. The process, which began with a conference for which the slides are now available, aims to keep the VLT/I at the forefront of astrophysical research in the coming decades. This is distinct from the Expanding Horizons effort, whose goal is to select the next facility after the ELT.

ALMA is pleased to announce that, for the Cycle 13 Call for Proposals, a web-based interface of the ALMA Observing Tool (OT) will replace the previously used desktop-based OT. The web-based OT offers the same functionality as the desktop-based OT. The new interface offers a modernized and optimized view while retaining the same familiar workflow and structure. Proposal drafts will now be automatically saved within the system, without the need to save local files.