Annual Reports
The Europlanet AISBL Annual Report provides an overview of the organisation’s activities in the period.
2023
2023 Annual Report Executive Summary
2023 has been a transformational year for Europlanet. The establishment of the Europlanet Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), hosted by the Planetary Atmospheres Group of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), has provided a secure legal structure for the sustainability of Europlanet’s activities.
The membership of the Europlanet Society has reached over 600 for the first time, and this cohort will elect new members of the Executive Board, to be announced on 10 November 2023. The structures of the Europlanet Society, including its Regional Hubs and Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network, are also undergoing transition, with many new Chairs and volunteers taking on roles within the last 12 months. The Society has supported the community through bursaries, grants and prizes totalling over €60,000 over the year.
The Society organised a hybrid joint meeting of the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) with the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) in San Antonio, Texas, USA and online, during which a quarter of the 918 participants came from Europe. 23 members of the Society were supported to attend the meeting through bursaries for early career professionals and students, researchers from under-represented states and amateur astronomers.
The Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) project’s second periodic report was submitted and approved by the European Commission in 2023, and over 100 research visits to facilities and field sites have been completed to date through its Transnational Access programme. The first Europlanet Research Infrastructure Meeting (ERIM) 2023, held in Bratislava in June, brought the community together for discussions, workshops and training on Europlanet RI services, and provided an opportunity to revitalise the networks and structures of the Europlanet Society. ERIM also kick-started a sustainability roadmapping programme for Europlanet that will result in a draft operational and business plan to be presented in September 2024.
