LOFAR ERIC has been officially set up by the European Commission on 20 December 2023.
LOFAR ERIC will soon be taking on all governance and operations responsibilities for the LOFAR Distributed Research Infrastructure. This website will be updated accordingly in due time.
The vision of the LOFAR ERIC is to ensure that LOFAR remains the world's most powerful very-low-frequency and long-baseline radio interferometer until at least 2030, and to bring together the European research community to maximise the scientific output from LOFAR’s diverse infrastructure. Through this, the LOFAR ERIC aims to provide the European research community with the hands-on scientific and technical skills and
knowledge that will enable European researchers to establish and maintain global leadership positions in radio astronomy.
To achieve this vision, the mission of the LOFAR ERIC has several components.
The LOFAR ERIC will offer capabilities to the European research community that are not available anywhere else in the world, and thus offer huge potential advantages for European researchers, both scientifically and technically. It will help to place European researchers at the forefront of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA; the multi-billion-Euro global radio telescope for which construction is just beginning), cementing long-term benefits for Europe.
The Low Frequency Array European Research Infrastructure Consortium (LOFAR ERIC) is looking for a new executive director, who will play a pivotal role in representing LOFAR ERIC to all relevant stakeholders and ensure the efficient joint operation of the LOFAR facilities.
We write to follow the announcement you have received from René Vermeulen describing his imminent extended leave, starting on 1 March.
We take this first opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for René in leading LOFAR to its current heights. René’s painstaking work has enabled LOFAR to build from a nascent Dutch facility into an ever-growing and strong European collaboration of members, now numbering 10 countries.
LOFAR ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) has been officially launched at its first Council meeting today. The world-leading LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) Distributed Research Infrastructure has already revolutionised low-frequency radio astronomy research, resulting in an avalanche of scientific publications in the past decade. LOFAR ERIC is now a single legal entity across the European Union.