The International Astronomical Union (IAU) Commission C2 — Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) and the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) are now accepting submissions to host the 2026 edition of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) Conference. These events are held at least every two years, and provide an opportunity for individuals working in science communication, as well as professional and amateur astronomers, to exchange ideas and best practices.

The call to host CAP 2026 is now open and will proceed in two main steps:

1. Submit a Letter of Intent (LoI) via this form.
2. Prospective hosts, approved on the basis of the LoI, will be invited to submit a full proposal.

The deadline to submit the LoI to host the 2026 CAP Conference is 31 March 2024.

On the CAP Conference website, there is more information on how to become a CAP Conference host, as well as on governing principles, responsibilities and various other aspects to be considered by a host before applying.

The important dates relating to the selection of the host for the CAP Conference 2026 are:

• 31 March 2024: deadline to submit the Letter of Intent to host the 2026 CAP Conferenc
• 15–20 April 2024: evaluation of LoIs
• 30 April 2024: communication of the results of the LoI selection process
• 15 July 2024: deadline for full proposals
• 30 July 2024: public announcement of the successful bid

The 2024 edition of the CAP Conference will be held from 24 to 28 June 2024, at the Cité de l’espace in Toulouse, France, and online. Under the theme of “Astronomy Communication in a Hybrid World”, the Scientific Organising Committee warmly invites the community to join the event in Toulouse and online.

More Information:

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12,000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and preserve all aspects of astronomy, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

The IAU Commission C2 is a think/do-tank that convenes the astronomy communication community and seeds initiatives to explore new ways to communicate astronomy with the public. Its mission is to: encourage and enable a much larger fraction of the astronomical community to take an active role in explaining what we do (and why) to our fellow citizens; act as an international, impartial coordinating entity that furthers the recognition of outreach and public communication on all levels in astronomy; encourage international collaborations on outreach and public communication; endorse standards, best practices and requirements for public communication.

The main goal of the IAU C2 CAP Conferences Working Group is to organise a Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) Conference and aside from co-organising the call for hosting the CAP Conference, select the winning bid and act as the Scientific Advisory Committee of the conference, establishing the theme and sub-themes of the conference, evaluating the abstracts and supervising the selection of invited speakers.

The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) is a joint project of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The mission of the OAO is to engage the public in astronomy through access to astronomical information and communication of the science of astronomy. This is implemented through a network of IAU National Outreach Coordinators (NOCs) and the IAU’s public engagement initiatives. The work of the OAO is about building bridges between the IAU and the global astronomy community of amateur astronomers, outreach professionals, educators, communicators, and the general public, and through international collaboration, to make the science of astronomy accessible to all.

Links

• Communicating Astronomy with the Public Official Website
• Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2024

Contacts

Samir Dhurde
CAP 2024 SOC Co-Chair
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Tel: +91 8983336912
Email: samir@iucaa.in

Kelly Blumenthal
CAP 2024 SOC Co-Chair & OAO Director
IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach
Tel: +81 080 8841 3569
Email: blumenthal.kelly@oao.iau.org

Ramasamy Venugopal
CAP 2024 SOC Co-Chair
IAU Office of Astronomy for Development
Tel: +27 60 776 3832
Email: rv@astro4dev.org

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Director of Communications
Cell: +1 520 461 0433/+49 173 38 72 621
Email: lars.christensen@noirlab.edu