ASTRON2.0

© ASTRON

The future of ASTRON shines bright. We are hard at work on major projects like the SKA, Science Data Centre, LOFAR 2.0 and a Gigahertz platform. In order to make our organisational structure match these challenges, we have restructured our departments per 1 September 2020. Most notably, we no longer have a separate astronomy and radio observatory department but one Astronomy & Operations department to make sure our instruments can meet and surpass the expectations of our astronomy users.

ASTRON will deliver an upgrade to its LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) stations and run the DUPLLO survey. We will complete the Apertif survey that is currently running with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). We are exploring future platforms and systems, like a Gigahertz platform. And we are preparing for the international SKA telescope that will start operations in a few years’ time, delivering its observations to the Netherlands in one of the regional data centres.

New departments

To meet this exciting future, we have restructured the three departments Research & Development, Astronomy Group and Radio Observatory into two new departments: Innovation & Systems and Astronomy & Operations. The first will focus on the development and delivery of telescope systems, the latter on producing science with those systems and delivering data products to our users.

Furthermore, we have restructured the General Affairs department into the new department Business Support & Services to optimise the support of the organisation and its departments.

The Daily Image shows an organogram of the new organisational structure. You will find ASTRON to be increasingly committed to making discoveries in radio astronomy happen.