OAD Regional Offices Activities - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development

Regional Offices Activities: OCT-DEC 2022

The office is organising a Big Data Hackathon at the National University of Engineering, Peru. This first Hackathon of the Andean Region will be virtually held from February 7-10, 2023.

The office organized, with the Jordanian Astronomical Society (JAS), the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Science (AUASS) and some other Jordanian & Arab institutions, several public lectures, seminars, and courses via Zoom

The East Africa ROAD attended the forum on Astronomy in Africa online meeting in October 2022.
The office coordinated the staff exchange program between the Ethiopian Space Science and geospatial Institute (SSGI) and Leiden, through Erasmus+ ICM mobility funding with Leiden University
The National Astronomy for Education (NAEC) Rwanda organized a 4-day teacher training workshop which was held at University of Rwanda, from 14th to 17th December, 2022

An Innovative Astronomy Forum “Talking about Astronomy and People, Empowering Future Development” was launched to share the contribution and significance of astronomy to human exploration as well as improvement in our life. It was organized by the Chinese Astronomical Society, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, East Asia Regional Office of the IAU’s Office of Astronomy for Development, and other supporters. Several videos were published by the project that are available online (Chinese with English subtitles).

The office is preparing for upcoming visits within the Erasmus+ Twinning programme

With funding from the Heising-Simons Foundation, the office secured a coordinator for the Women and Girls in Astronomy (+development) Program. The project will fund 10 outreach projects across North America this year with $1,000 mini grants.

The PLOAD office is planning activities in 2023 on three occasions: International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11) , International Portuguese Language Day (May 5), and during the World Space Week in October

SEA+ Translation project continues in Cambodia and Timor-Leste. This project is aimed to encourage the people in SEA region and beyond to get the astronomy booklets in their own languages

The SWCA ROAD coordinator, Areg Mickaelian, gave a Keynote Talk: on Astronomy and Big Data at the 2nd International Forum on Physics and Astronomy (AstronomyForum2022)
The office collaborates with the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education and the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach

New member of Steering Committee has been appointed to replace Dr. Habatwa Mweene – Dr. Recka Rajan, Head of Physics Department, University of Zambia
A country coordinator for Zambia has been appointed to replace Nchimunya Mwiinga. The new Country Coordinator is Gift Sichone, University of Zambia

PAPSSN Mobility Program: The 3rd call for the selection of participants will soon commence.
VASCO Citizen science is ongoing with the verification of some identified candidates which have transients.
Implementation of the Erasmus funding for staff exchange in Astronomy, will commence in 2023