During the week of 24 October 2016, nearly 250 CTA Consortium members from 25 of its 32 member countries from around the world came together in Bologna, Italy to discuss the science and construction of CTA. The CTA Consortium includes 1,350 members from 210 institutes in 32 countries. This group of institutions is currently responsible for directing the science goals of the Observatory and is involved in the array design and supplying components (as in-kind contributions). The meeting consisted of a mix of parallel and plenary sessions with topics ranging from reports from the project work packages and CTA Project Office to Observatory operations and detailed science goals of CTA.

The meeting was hosted by INAF/IASF-Bologna at the Conference Centre of the Bologna CNR-INAF Research Area, which is the location of CTA’s new headquarters (estimated to open in 2017). Special thanks to Pino Malaguti (INAF/IASF-Bologna Director) and Vito Conforti for meeting coordination and organisation.

Left, in addition to the daily meetings, the attendees were treated to a traditional Bolognese dinner on 26 October at the Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna’s historic city centre.

The internal authority of the Consortium, the Consortium Board, also met twice during the week. The Board includes representatives from each of the Consortium institutes and is responsible for endorsing all major Consortium decisions. Some of the highlights from their meeting in Bologna, include:

Two new member institutes were admitted to the CTA Consortium: The Warsaw University of Technology in Poland and the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium in Northern Ireland. In addition, the Liverpool John Moores University was promoted from associated to regular CTA Consortium member.

Jean-Pierre Ernenwein from CPPM (France) was nominated as the new Chair of the Speaker’s And Publication Office (SAPO) and will begin 1 January 2017.

The 2nd semester 2017 Consortium meeting will be held in La Palma, Spain in November.

The Consortium meets bi-annually. The next meeting will be 15-19 May 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

For more images from the event, visit our Flickr page.

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CTA Consortium Meeting Comes to a Close in Bologna - CTAO