The Europlanet Spain & Portugal Hub, is the Iberian node of the Europlanet Society. Its main objective is to support the Spanish and Portuguese planetary science community, with >400 planetary researchers and engineers, promoting the collaboration between all scientific and technology development institutions, private industries and space agencies, reinforcing the participation of Iberian scientists and engineers in national and international space research programmes.
The Switzerland Hub was established in 2019 to promote planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the Swiss and wider European community, within the Europlanet Society.
Members of the Committee of the Switzerland Hub are:
Chair (Outgoing): Sascha Quanz (ETH Zürich)
Industry Officer: Elena Benedetto (Université de Genève)
Outreach Officer: Thibaut Roger (Universität Bern)
The Southeast Europe Hub was established in 2018 to promote planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the scientific communities of Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia, and wider European community, within the Europlanet Society.
Members of the Committee of the Southeast Europe Hub are:
Chair: Nick Sergis (Hellenic Space Center)
Advisor: Ioannis Daglis (Hellenic Space Center)
Vice-Chairs: Anezina Solomonidou (Caltech/JPL), Veneta Guineva (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Constantinos Constantinou (University of Cyprus), Giuli Verbanac (University of Zagreb), Dan Alin Nedelcu (Romanian Academy of Sciences), Milan Radovanović (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Early Career Officer: Christos Katsavrias (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Diversity Officer: Marina Molla (9th Elementary School, Komotini)
Industry Officer: Ingmar Sandberg (Space Applications & Research Consultancy)
The Germany Hub was established in 2019 to promote planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the German and wider European community, within the Europlanet Society.
The France Hub was established in 2019 to promote planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the French and wider European community, within the Europlanet Society.
Members of the Committee of the France Hub are:
Chair: Susan Conway (CNRS LPG Nantes)
Secretary: Gabriel Tobie (CNRS LPG Nantes)
Diversity Officer: Léa Bonnefoy (Cornell)
Media Officer: Stephanie Beaunay (CNRS LPG Nantes)
The Benelux Hub was established in 2019 to promote planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the Belgian, Dutch, Luxembourg and wider European communities, within the Europlanet Society.
Members of the Committee of the Benelux Hub are:
Responsible Lux: Dennis Harries
Responsible Be: Séverine Robert
Responsible NL: vacant
Early Career Officer Be: Fleur Seuren
Early Career Officer NL: Zeina Naim, Lara Maldanis and Annemiek Waajen
Diversity Officer: Arianna Piccialli
Outreach Officer: Stijn Calders
Industry Officers: Monica Sanchez-Roman (NL) and Didier Moreau (Be)
The Ireland and UK Hub was established in 2019 to promote planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the Irish, UK and wider European community, within the Europlanet Society.
Members of the Committee of the Ireland and UK Hub are:
Interim Chair: Steve Miller (University College London)
Vice Chair: Chrysa Avdellidou (University of Leicester)
Secretary: Jack Wright (European Space Agency)
Outreach Officer: Lewis Dartnell (Westminster University)
EPEC Officer: Connor Hoad (Royal Holloway University of London) and Lee White (Open University)
Hub Website Officer: Frances Butcher (University of Sheffield)
Europlanet Research Infrastructure Meeting (ERIM) 2023 and EPEC Annual Week
The first Europlanet Research Infrastructure Meeting (ERIM), co-hosted with the fifth Europlanet Early Career Network (EPEC) Annual Week, took place from 19-23 June 2023 in hybrid format at the Hotel Sorea in Bratislava, Slovakia, and online. 137 participants joined us for the meeting in Bratislava, with a further 94 following the meeting online. Of these, 45 participated in the hybrid EPEC Annual Week training school.>
Image credit: E. Polischuk (CC BY-SA 4.0)
ERIM 2023 brought together a range of planetary science and Europlanet community workshops, including interactive sessions on geological mapping, planetary space weather, the Europlanet Telescope Network, industry engagement, innovations in outreach tools.
The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Annual Week was co-hosted with ERIM, along with Europlanet Society meetings of the Regional Hubs and the Europlanet General Assembly to promote
The Europlanet Society promotes the advancement of European planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the community and is open to individual and organisational members. Anyone with an active interest in planetary science (whether academic or industrial, professional or amateur) is welcome to join.
Our aims:
To expand and support a diverse and inclusive planetary community across Europe through the activities of our 10 Regional Hubs.
To build the profile of our sector through outreach, education and policy activities.
To underpin the key role Europe plays in planetary science through developing links at a national and international level.
The Society is the parent body of the annual Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) the largest annual meeting on planetary science in Europe. Launched in September 2018, the Europlanet Society builds on the heritage of 15 years of Europlanet projects funded by the European Commission and provides a sustainable legacy for infrastructure, virtual access facilities, tools and services developed through these activities.
The Europlanet Society is governed by an elected Executive Board and its activities are supported by Committees and Working Groups drawn from its membership. The Society’s Executive Office is hosted and administered by the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg.
If you would like to discuss a bespoke package for organisational members, please contact us.
The launch of the Europlanet Society at EPSC2018. Credit: L GiacominiMembers of the Europlanet Society gathered for the General Assembly at EPSC2022. Credit: Europlanet/T Roger.
Report on Society Activities (presented at EPSC2022)
The Europlanet Society Regional Hubs support the development of planetary science at a national and regional level, particularly in countries and areas that are currently under-represented within the community.
Our Hub Committees organise networking events and workshops to support the research community, as well as to build links with amateur astronomers, industrial partners, policymakers, educators, the media and the wider public. Europlanet Society members are welcome to participate in the activities of one or more Hubs.
The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) network is organised by early-career researchers, for early-career researchers, and includes volunteers from across the Europlanet international community. The EPEC network is open to all students, doctoral candidates and early-career planetary scientists and space professionals whose last degree (e.g. MSc or PhD) was obtained a maximum of 7 years ago (excluding parental leave, serious illness and similar delays).
One of the main objectives of EPEC is to form a strong network between young professionals by organising early-career-relevant events and by engaging in different projects amongst the different working groups (see website for more details on working groups). Furthermore, the EPEC community aims to bring a young voice into Europlanet Society to shape the future of planetary and space sciences and engineering.
The EPEC Committee and the nine EPEC Working Groups are constantly looking for interested early-career professionals who are willing to spend some of their academic time with the organising elements of various EPEC activities. By getting involved with the EPEC Committee or one of the Working Groups, you not only get a chance to build a diverse professional network across Europe and abroad, but also build important soft-skills such as leadership qualities and management experience by working with a very friendly and energetic community.
If you would like to receive news (e.g., about the annual EPEC week or the next activities planned at EPSC), please sign up here. We will not spam you with lots of emails, but only send a few emails per year with relevant information.
Hello, Central European space scientists, space engineers, amateurs, teachers and students!
We are a group of voluntaries from Central European countries coming together regularly through telecons and brainstorming about possible activities that could promote Central European space research. We are organising workshops and networking events in order to connect industry and academia, to help early-career scientists and promote outreach.
The member states of Europlanet’s Central European Hub include Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Don’t hesitate to join our hub by becoming a Europlanet Society Member → Here.
Europlanet Society Statement on Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity
The Europlanet Society is committed to building a diverse, inclusive planetary science community in Europe and to ensuring that individuals within that community experience equal opportunity, regardless of gender, disability, ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marital status, age, nationality or socioeconomic background.
Europlanet Diversity Committee
The Europlanet Diversity Committee acts as a strategic task force to advise, coordinate and champion activities across the Europlanet Society that further the Society’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusivity.
Chair: Vic Pearson (Open University)
Vice-chair: Solmaz Adeli (DLR)
Secretary: Marina Molla
Regional Hub Diversity Officers:
Benelux Hub: Arianna Piccialli (BIRA-IASB)
Central Europe Hub: Anna Łosiak (University of Exeter)
Europlanet supports evidence-based policy, informing policy makers on the scientific, industrial and socio-economic impacts of planetary science, at European and national level. Europlanet is also engaging with the planetary science community raising awareness of political developments and encourages its engagement with policy makers and industry across Europe.
Since 2010, Europlanet has had an active programme of engaging policy makers with the cutting-edge science and technological challenges of planetary science and exploration. We have organized one-to-one briefings, dinner debates and other events aimed at Members of the European Parliament, European Commission officials and key industry and policy groups.
Resources
Check out the Europlanet Society policy briefing sheets, the Science for Policy Handbook, and ESPAS (European Strategy and Policy Analysis System).
The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) is the major European meeting on planetary science.
EPSC2024
EPSC2024 will take place at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany from 08-13 September 2024.
Freie Universität Berlin, venue for EPSC2024. Credit: Freie Universität Berlin
About EPSC
The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) is the major European meeting on planetary science. Originally known as the European Planetary Science Congress, the first EPSC was held in Berlin in 2006. EPSC is the main dissemination platform for the European planetary science community and is the annual meeting of the Europlanet Society. EPSC meetings cover the entire scope of planetary sciences and have a distinctively interactive style, with an extensive mix of talks, workshops and posters, intended to provide a stimulating environment for the community to meet.
EPSC-DPS 2025: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland, 7-12 September 2025
The call to host the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) in 2026 or 2027 is now open.
Deadline for proposals: 19 April 2024.
Outreach and Education at EPSC
The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) is an opportunity for sharing the latest developments in planetary science with communities hosting Europlanet’s annual meeting and around the world, as well as a platform for discussing tools, approaches, outcomes and innovations within the planetary outreach and education community.
For over a decade, Europlanet had actively engaged with both policy makers and Industry and Academia groups. We continue to leverage collaborations, synergies with experts and policy makers to engage them with the cutting-edge science and technological challenges of planetary science and exploration.
For more information about our Policy and Industry activities:
The Italy Hub was established in October 2018 to promote planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the Italian and European community, within the new Europlanet Society.
Italy participates as a beneficiary of the Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) project (here the Italian webpage related to the project) with different institutions: INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) Universita Degli Studi Gabriele D’annunzio di Chieti-Pescara Università di Bologna University of Padova
Members of the Committee of the Italy Hub:
Chair: Stavro Ivanovski (INAF- OATS)
Vice Chair: Alice Lucchetti (INAF-OAPD)
Advisor: Maria Cristina De Sanctis (INAF-IAPS)
Industry Officer: Vacant
Outreach Officers: Livia Giacomini (INAF) and Federica Duras (INAF)
Diversity Officer: Vacant
Early Career Officer: Giovanni Munaretto (INAF-OAPD)
About the Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI)
The Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) provides free access to the world’s largest collection of planetary simulation and analysis facilities, data services and tools, a ground-based observational network and programme of community support activities.
The project is funded through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme and runs for four years from February 2020 until January 2024. The Europlanet 2024 RI consortium is led by the University of Kent, UK, and has over 50 beneficiary institutions from 24 countries in Europe and around the world, with a further 44 affiliated partners. The project draws on the resources of the Europlanet Society to disseminate activities and outcomes and develop a more diverse community of users.
Europlanet 2024 RI provides:
Transnational Access to 24 laboratories in Europe and seven* field sites, as well as additional facilities in South Korea and China.
If you have recieved funding from Europlanet 2024 RI, please add the official acknowledgement below to each publication and dissemination activity:“Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.”
Objectives of Europlanet outreach and public engagement
The Europlanet Society’s outreach activities aim to raise the profile of planetary science amongst European citizens, policy-makers, industry and the media, and support planetary scientists in engaging different audiences with their research. The Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) project, and planetary science research in general, are funded through public money and are publicly accountable.
Why engage with planetary science?
Planetary science has a direct relevance to our understanding of our own planet, its origins, its past and future evolution, the conditions needed for life, and threats from our space environment, such as solar storms or Near-Earth Asteroids. Europlanet aims to engage European citizens in dialogue about this research and to communicate the scientific, social, economic and cultural impact of planetary science.
Exploration and planetary science can act as a hook to inspire the next generation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM). Europlanet aims to create and curate high-quality teaching resources and activities for use in classrooms and informal learning settings.
Educational Resources
Europlanet provides resources to support the use of planetary science to inspire and engage students and teachers with STEM.
Outreach Services
The Europlanet Society and Europlanet 2024 RI offer the following services to support outreach and education initiatives within the planetary science community:
Training: we run workshops to equip planetary scientists with the skills to convey their work effectively to different audiences and support members of the outreach community to develop their own training workshops to deliver via the Europlanet Regional Hub network.
Best practice: we coordinate sessions and workshops to share knowledge within the community. Our annual meeting, the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC), includes several sessions related to different aspects of outreach and education in planetary science.
Prize: we award an annual prize for public engagement in planetary science.
Funding Scheme: we provide seed funding for new and innovative outreach projects.
Europlanet Evaluation Toolkit: we have developed easy-to-use evaluation tools to help assess the impact and outcomes of education and outreach activities.
Resources: we are collating some of the best outreach and education resources related to planetary science to share with the community. From 2020-2024 we are also developing new educational resources related to the activities of Europlanet 2024 RI and the planetary science community, with the aim of making these accessible in multiple languages.
The Northern Europe Hub was established in 2019 to promote planetary science and related fields for the benefit of the Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Swedish and wider European community, within the Europlanet Society.
The Europlanet Society Northern Hub (EPSC 2022, Granada, Spain) (Left to right): Stefanus Schroder (Sweden), Erika Kaufmann (Sweden), Maria Hieta (Finland), Maria Genzer (Finland), Harri Haukka (Finland, Chair), Grazina Tautvaisiene (Lithuania, Vice Chair ), Veikko Makela (Finland), Jonathan P. Merrison (Denmark, former Chair), Edita Stonkute (Lithuania), Heleri Ramler (Estonia), Stas Barabash (Sweden) and Yoshifumi Futaana (Sweden).
Committees and national representatives
Members of the Committee of the Northern Europe Hub are:
Chair: Harri Haukka (Finnish Meteorological Institute) – harri.haukka@fmi.fi
Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.
Europlanet AISBL (Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif - 0800.634.634) is hosted by the Department of Planetary Atmospheres of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Avenue Circulaire 3, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium.
