The program of IAU scientific meetings (Symposia, Focus Meetings, Division Meetings, Regional Meetings) is one of the most important methods by which the IAU pursues its goal of promoting astronomy through international collaboration. A large fraction of the Union's budget is devoted to the support of these IAU scientific meetings.

It is very encouraging that eighty-four Letters of Intent to propose scientific meetings in 2018 have been received so far: thirty-eight Letters of Intent for Focus Meetings, thirty-six Letters of Intent for Symposia to take place during the General Assembly and ten Letters of Intent for Symposia outside the General Assembly.

The list of Letters of Intent received has been posted here on the IAU web site and will be updated. The objective is to inform potential proposers of other existing plans for IAU meeting proposals. This is in order to avoid unnecessary competition between proposals and to stimulate possible collaborations between otherwise competing groups.

Letters of Intent are normally followed by full proposals and the IAU takes this opportunity to remind those considering submitting proposals that the deadline for submission is 15 December 2016.

If you are considering organising a meeting you should read the Rules and Guidelines for IAU scientific meetings here. It might be useful to start by reading section 5 of the document: a “Step by Step summary for the proposal of IAU Meetings”.

Links

• Received Letters of Intent for 2018

Contacts

Maria Teresa Lago
IAU Assistant General Secretary
Porto, Portugal
Tel: +351 226 089 833
Email: mtlago@astro.up.pt

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Press Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 320 06 761
Cell: +49 173 38 72 621
Email: lars@eso.org