Euro-VO International Cooperation Empowerment (EuroVO-ICE)

Project partners

The project has four partners, CNRS, ESO, INAF and the University of Edinburgh.

CNRS (Centre National de la Recheche Scientifique)

CNRS coordinates the French participation in the Virtual Observatory through the Action Spécifique Observatoires Virtuels France (Specific Action France Virtual Observatory – AS OV). AS OV is supported by INSU and CNES, and coordinates the French participation to the VO from most French Observatories.

The EuroVO-ICE project is coordinated by the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS - Université de Strasbourg/CNRS-INSU), a major participant in the development of the VO at the international and national levels, the coordinator of the FP6 project Euro-VO Data Centre Alliance (EuroVO-DCA) and FP7 Integrated Infrastructure Initiative [[http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/twikiDCA/bin/view/EuroVODCA/WebHome][ (EuroVO-AIDA), and a partner of the European FP5 Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (AVO) RTD project and FP6 VOTECH Design Study. CDS publishes widely used reference services in the VO, and is recognized as the lead of the Euro-VO Data Centre Alliance.

In EuroVO-ICE, CNRS leads WP1 Management and WP2 Strategy, Governance and liaison.

ESO (European Southern Observatory)

The European Southern Observatory - European Organization for Astronomy in the Southern Emisphere - is a European intergovernmental research organisation developing and operating observatories in Chile on behalf of astronomers in 14 member states of the EU. ESO operates the world’s largest ground-based astronomical data archive with more than 3000 registered users and will provide by 2012 access to nearly 1Petabyte of data from ESO telescopes, including the Atacame Large Millimeter Array (ALMA).

ESO was the co-ordinating organisation of the FP5 AVO RTD Project and founding member of the (IVOA). ESO participated in VOTECH, in the EuroVO-DCA and in the EuroVO-AIDA, and leads the Euro-VO Facility Centre with ESA.

in EuroVO-ICE, ESO leads WP3 Coordination of take-up activities.

INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica)

The Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica - INAF promotes, realizes and co-ordinates, also within programs of the European Union and international organisms, activity of research in many astronomical fields, in collaboration with the Universities and with other public and private, national and international subjects. It is a network that consisting of Astronomical Observatories and Institutes geographically distributed over the national territory.

INAF is also active in the fields of GRID technologies (deployment of infrastructure and integration of domain-specific applications) and archives of astronomical data (from both ground-based and space-borne facilities). It coordinates the national VO initiative (VObs.it) in coordination with the Italian Space Agency ASI, the CINECA super-computing centre and several universities.

INAF participated in the in VOTECH, in the EuroVO-DCA and in the EuroVO-AIDA projects.

In EuroVO-ICE, INAF leads WP5 Coordination of education and outreach activities.

The University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh enters the project of behalf of the AstroGrid project, which is a consortium of UK Universities and Public Laboratories which collaborate within the UK to take forward the Virtual Observatory agenda. AstroGrid has a particular focus on the development of the technical infratructure necessary for the VO, as well as development of the related standards.

For that reason, AstroGrid is recognized as the lead partner within the Euro-VO Technology Centre, and was the coordinating partner from the FP6 VOTECH Design Study. It also participated in the AVO, EuroVO-DCA (through the University of Leicester) and in the EuroVO-AIDA projects.

In EuroVO-ICE, the University of Edinburgh leads WP4 European and international coordination of technological activities.

-- FrancoiseGenova - 2010-09-06