Science workshops represent a unique opportunity to foster ideas and collaborations. In a recent ESOblog entry, ESO's Director General, Xavier Barcons, outlined the many ways in which ESO and ESA are working together, to facilitate exchanges between astrophysics-related space-born missions and ground-based facilities as well as between their respective communities. In particular, ESA and ESO are joining forces to organise a series of international Astronomy meetings, alternating between ESO and ESA sites. A new Call was recently issued inviting astronomers to submit proposals for an ESA-ESO conference to be held in 2019.

You are cordially invited to participate in the 2018 Global Survey of Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Scientists, recently launched by the project “A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical and Natural Sciences: How to Measure It, How to Reduce It?”. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration led by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), supported by the International Council for Science (ICSU) over the triennium 2017–2019, and endorsed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), one of the main partners in the project.

Lisbon, Portugal, July 9-14, 2018

By combining the light from four telescopes, ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) delivers angular resolution at milli-arcsecond scales, and astrometry at tens of micro-arcseconds. The available instrumentation covers the H to N bands, with low to moderately high spectral resolution. As long-baseline optical interferometric observing techniques are not widespread in the community, VLTI schools are periodically organised. The next school will take place from 9–14 July in Lisbon and will provide practical hands-on training on observational programme preparation, data reduction and analysis. Full lodging and subsistence costs will be provided to all attendees. The registration deadline is 1 July 2018, and may close earlier if all available places are filled.

Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, 8-12 October, 2018

The Network for Young Researchers in Instrumentation for Astrophysics (NYRIA) is organising its fourth annual workshop at Leiden Observatory. This international group of early career researchers was created after a summer school which took place in 2014 in Santiago, Chile. Many of the participants have convened every year since, organising a meeting or workshop at different institutes in Europe whilst expanding this network.
The meeting aims to create a space to present the work of the attendants, to hold open discussions and to encourage collaborations between participants and institutes. The workshop will include a series of talks by all participants and guest speakers, tours of the Leiden University and facilities in Dwingeloo, and a hack-a-thon, in which all participants will work together on a current instrumentation problem.

Pucón, Chile, December 10-14, 2018

The bulge is a primary component of the Milky Way, comprising ∼25% of its mass. All major Galactic stellar populations intersect there, reaching their highest densities. Exploring the bulge is fundamental to understanding Galactic formation, structure and evolution. With the advent of multiplexed spectrographs on 8-metre class telescopes, and the availability of wide-field near-infrared photometry, our knowledge of the structural, chemical and kinematical properties of the Galactic bulge has improved dramatically in the last few years. At the same time, the interpretation of the data is not straightforward, and many fundamental questions remain. In this context, a host of exciting new results are expected in 2018. This conference aims to gather the international astronomical community to discuss these developments, and to begin to establish a consensus on their interpretation.