1. EIROforum is a partnership between eight of Europe’s largest intergovernmental scientific organisations
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Good afternoon. I’m Tim de Zeeuw, the Director General of ESO, which is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation. I’m also the current chair of EIROforum, a collaboration between eight European inter-governmental scientific research organisations.
I’d like to say a few words about how global research infrastructures play a vital role in enabling scientific research on a scale greater than that of individual countries.
Each of the organisations (known as EIROs) is funded by Member States, which share the costs and can send their scientists to use the facilities. By combining the financial resources of many countries, these organisations provide equipment and facilities far more sophisticated than any one country could afford, enabling world-class scientific and technological research in interdisciplinary fields.
I’m going to use the work done at ESO as an example, but this also can be seen with the other EIROforum partners, for example the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, whose DG, Iain Mattaj, spoke earlier.

2. The ESO Very Large Telescope on Paranal Altitude: 2635 metres
At ESO, we design, build, and operate state-of-the-art telescopes, which allow astronomers to make important astronomical discoveries. Beyond this, though, we also promote and organise cooperation in astronomical research.
ESO was founded over 50 years ago, when astronomers from different European countries joined together to construct an observatory that was not only more powerful than what they could build nationally, but which was located in the southern hemisphere. The southern skies provide the best views of our neighbouring galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, and the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.
To get the best observing conditions, we build the telescopes in remote and challenging locations. This is our flagship, the world-leading Very Large Telescope, on Cerro Paranal in Chile’s Atacama Desert. It’s at an altitude of 2600 metres, and hours from anywhere. To operate on this scale, you need international collaboration.
Openness goes hand-in-hand with this collaboration. Astronomers from any country can apply to use ESO telescopes, even if they are not based in a Member State. Not only this, but for all observations, after a proprietary period of typically one year, anyone in the world can access the data from our archive.
The ESO Very Large Telescope on Paranal
Altitude: 2635 metres
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3. ALMA on Chajnantor Altitude: 5000 metres
Over the decades, ESO has not only built its own observatories, such as at Paranal, but we have also joined even wider partnerships. This is ”ALMA”, a transformational radio telescope which is a joint venture between ESO and partners in North America and East Asia. It’s an array of 66 state-of-the-art antennas, spread over 16 kilometres at an altitude of 5000 metres on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile, and it’s the most powerful telescope of its kind. Once again, this is an example of research infrastructures enabling collaboration on a global scale.
ALMA on Chajnantor
Altitude: 5000 metres
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4. The ESO Extremely Large Telescope on Armazones Altitude: 3060 metres
ESO’s collaborative model lets us bring public and private sectors together for everyone’s benefit. When building telescopes and instruments, not only do we place contracts with industry, but we also cooperate closely with public scientific institutions, for providing enhancements in exchange for observing time with ESO facilities.
We’re taking this joint approach with ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, our current construction project, which you can see in this rendering. It will be a 39-metre-diameter optical and infrared telescope, that will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky when it starts observing in We’re building it right now, on the 3000-metre mountaintop of Cerro Armazones only 20 kilometres from Paranal.
Once again, effective trans-national collaboration is vitally important for tomorrow’s observatories. The scale of the projects means that we have to work together, and build them together.
The ESO Extremely Large Telescope on Armazones
Altitude: 3060 metres
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5. Proxima b, an Earth-mass exoplanet orbiting Proxima Centauri
Collaboration and openness have helped ESO become the world’s most productive astronomical observatory, with a stream of scientific discoveries using ESO data.
Here’s just one, which you’ve probably already heard about. The study of exoplanets — planets around stars other than the Sun — is an extremely hot topic at the moment. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to get the public, including young people, interested in science and technology fields, which is of benefit well beyond astronomy.
For this reason, we were very excited to announce the recent discovery of an Earth-mass rocky planet in the habitable zone around our nearest star, Proxima Centauri. The planet, called Proxima b, will be a prime target for the hunt for evidence of life elsewhere in the Universe, both with existing telescopes and the next generation of giant telescopes such as ESO’s ELT. Stay tuned…
Proxima b, an Earth-mass exoplanet orbiting Proxima Centauri
Distance: 4.22 light years
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