Europlanet: Sustainability Beyond 2024
What is Europlanet offering the community?
- Mobility & Access
- TA visits (10 funded per year initially)
- Virtual TA Access/Telescope Network (5 funded per year initially)
- Expert Exchange visits (travel, accommodation and sustenance for 5 per year)
- Community Services
- Stakeholder Engagement (Policy, Industry, Media, Public)
- Community Funding Schemes
- Bursaries
- Prizes
- ‘Europlanet Sandbox’ proposal brainstorming sessions
- Training and Career Development
- Mentoring
- Summer and Winter Schools
- EPEC Annual Week
Middle row: Meteorite workshop in Morocco; The annual Europlanet Science Congress; Planetary Mapping Winter School.
Bottom row: Extraterrestrial Material analysed at the SAL facility at DLR; Europlanet data tools support planetary missions like Juice.
Credits: D. Dudulis, L Palcsu, B Cavalazzi, T Roger, GMAP, Europlanet, DLR, ESA, ATG medialab, NASA, JPL, J Nichols, U Leicester, U Arizona.
Changing Times
Europlanet was established through a series of projects funded by the European Commission between 2005 and 2024, with the aim of creating infrastructure and networks to support the planetary science community in Europe and around the world.
Over the past decade, work has been ongoing to create a sustainability plan that will enable Europlanet to continue its activities, independent of EC-Funding.
The first step, in 2018, was the launch of the Europlanet Society to support the sustainability of networking programmes. The second step, in 2023, was the foundation of the Europlanet Association Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), which provides Europlanet a sustainable legal entity.
Now, in 2024, the next step is to launch a new organisational membership programme that will provide a solid foundation for a Europlanet research infrastructure in decades to come.
How does it work?
Europlanet AISBL is a not-for-profit enterprise that offers key research infrastructure services developed and optimised over nearly 20 years
Financed through:
- Community subscriptions:
- New organisational membership programme
- Individual memberships
- EPSC settlement
- Fees
- Exhibition and sponsorship
- Commercial services
- Industry access to facilities at commercial rates
- Consultancy
- Organisational and individual membership routes to maximise participation and minimise barriers
>> Key difference – You must be a member of Europlanet, either as an individual or through your organisation, to participate in community activities.
The new organisational membership packages will launch in September 2024 at our General Assembly on 10 September.
Proposed fee scale:
| Category | Cost | Description |
| Tier 1 | € 10,000.00 | Large-scale Organisations |
| Tier 2 | € 2,500.00 | Institution |
| Tier 2 URS | € 1,250.00 | URS Institution |
| Tier 3 | € 500.00 | Amateur Society |
Why should my organisation join?
There are lots of reasons why your organisation should join Europlanet. Here are our top 10:
- Europlanet has 20 years’ experience of catalysing high-impact science, new collaborations and infrastructure developments. Your support for Europlanet ASIBL will help us to keep doing this and enable the staff of your institution to take part in our programmes.
- Independent evaluation shows that access to facilities and expertise through Europlanet mobility programmes, expert exchanges and networking activities leads to science that would not otherwise have taken place.
- More than 200 peer-reviewed publications cite Europlanet in the last four years alone.
- Europlanet has been developed by planetary scientists for planetary scientists. We are a grass-roots organisation offering state-of-the-art facilities and services that have been specifically developed and tailored for our community’s needs with over 25 million Euros funding from the European Commission.
- Europlanet accelerates career development for early-stage researchers, providing training, mentoring, summer/winter schools, opportunities to carry out research projects, and activities to develop professional networks. The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network supports early career professionals through thematic programmes, short courses, and events, including the EPEC Annual Week.
- Europlanet is an international network that brings together researchers and infrastructure from five continents (Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America) to make new connections and research collaborations. Our Regional Hubs build stronger networks of academics and industry related to planetary science and exploration regional and national level. Our active Discord community fosters discussion, highlights jobs and other opportunities and provides multiple ways to engage with peers.
- Europlanet provides services and tools to support interdisciplinary research related to all aspects of planetary science, from planetary space weather to geological mapping.
- We are an effective platform for finding partners and forming consortia for funding bids. As a sustainable, legal entity, Europlanet can also participate as a partner in Horizon bids, including co-funding calls, ensuring opportunities for ongoing support and infrastructure development for the planetary community.
- Europlanet provides a platform to shape policy relevant to planetary science, with a track record of effective input to ESFRI and EC consultations. Input from our Regional Hubs enable us to consider regional and national views in our responses.
- Europlanet has well-developed dissemination, media and communications channels, reaching over 2000 professionals working in the field and related communities, and thousands of members of the public. The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) is Europe’s largest annual meeting on planetary science and is an international showcase for our community. Join us in Berlin from 8-14 September 2024 and in Helsinki from 7-13 September 2025, when we will be holding a joint meeting with our sister organisation, the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Science.
