Brief Description:

This Cornerstone project acknowledges that astronomy needs to be developed in three key areas: professionally (universities and research); publicly (communication, media, and amateur groups) and educationally (schools and informal education structures).

The focus will be on regions that do not already have strong astronomical communities. The implementation will be centred on training, development and networking in each of these three key areas. This Cornerstone will use the momentum of the IYA2009 to help establish and enhance regional structures and networks that work on the development of astronomy around the world.

These networks will support the current and future development work of the IAU and other programmes and should ensure that developing regions can benefit from the IYA2009 and the work of the other Cornerstone projects. It should also address the question of the contribution of astronomy to development.

Implementation

Implementation of this cornerstone will rely on strong collaborations with each of the other cornerstone projects as well as a working relationship with the IAU Commission 46 and other similar bodies with common objective.

Three areas of focus need to be considered in terms of development:

(i) Professional development: This will target universities and existing research facilities in order to build professional astronomy research capacity within the country.

(ii) Development of public understanding of astronomy: This will target the general public and take the form of activities and events that stimulate an interest in astronomy. This focus area includes the development of an amateur astronomy community.

(iii) School-level education development: This will target schools and youth. It will focus on taking astronomy to the classroom (and beyond) and stimulating an interest in Mathematics and Science amongst young people.

These focus areas will be implemented differently according to the status of astronomy in each area within each targeted country. In order to optimise the process, target countries will be categorised according to four status levels (a. well established; b. in need of support; c. nonexistent with strong potential; d. non-existent with limited potential) within each respective focus area:

Professional Development:

• • Well established (existing research community with regular publications)
• • In need of support (available champions in astronomy but limited publications and clear need for support)
• • Non existent with strong potential (no champions or astronomy community but potential and infrastructure exists within university physics departments or other research institutions to introduce astronomy)
• • Non existent with limited potential (no astronomy and no infrastructure to work with)

Development of public understanding of astronomy:

• • Well established (astronomy promoted amongst the public; co-ordinating infrastructure as well as amateur astronomy organisations present)
• • In need of support (available champions but limited public engagement and clear need for support)
• • Non existent with strong potential (no champion or public awareness of astronomy but potential and infrastructure exists within other areas such as science promotion structures)
• • Non existent with limited potential (no public awareness and no infrastructure to work with)

School-level education development:

• a. Well established (astronomy promoted amongst schools; astronomy already part of the school curriculum)
• b. In need of support (available champions but limited promotion in schools and little to no astronomy in school curriculum; where astronomy is included in curriculum, support is still needed in teaching it)
• c. Non existent with strong potential (no champion or promotion of astronomy to schools but potential and infrastructure exists within government education departments and education related institutions)
• d. Non existent with limited potential (no promotion to schools and no infrastructure to work with)

Within each of these areas actions will be taken according to the status of that particular country. Although it must be acknowledged that every country will have to be dealt with differently depending on various other and sometimes unforeseen circumstances (e.g. language barriers, cultural beliefs, history, political status, conflict, economy, etc) general actions would usually include the following (per status):

• Well established:

a. Link with global IYA community and obtain participation in other cornerstone projects as well as general IYA to enhance astronomy activity during 2009

b. Investigate possibility of the country becoming
a regional node to support neighbouring
countries

• In need of support:

a. Establish strong links with champions and explore ways to improve current status

b. Link with global community around specific projects (which would arise from the first point)

c. Explore regional strengths in neighbouring countries

• Non existent with strong potential:

a. Find champions within existing infrastructures and treat as above.

• Non existent with limited potential:

a. Discuss potentials within the country with the government

b. Include regional strengths in discussions – explore the possibility of neighbouring countries driving the process.

Summary of specific actions depending on status:

Deliverables

1. Recognisable improvement of status within at least one focus area in each target country.
2. Strong international support networks and collaborative projects that last beyond 2009.
3. Regional nodes in developing areas to support neighbouring countries.

Timetable

Task group
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (South Africa, SALT) - Chair
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Japan. NAOJ)
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Portugal, Universidade do Porto)
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Italy, INAF)
Ana Lopes (Portugal, ESO)
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (UK, ROE)

Files

Report from December 03, 2007 (.pdf format, 143 KB)