Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Chile and the measures announced by the Government that include, among others, the suspension of all schools, the ALMA management has decided to emplace a contingency plan that enables the Observatory to reduce operations to a minimum level in the coming days, with many staff working remotely. The goal is to reduce the number of people at both sites, Santiago Central Offices and the Observatory in Northern Chile, to minimize the chances of infections and thereby maximize the safety and well-being of all staff and contractors.

For up to date information on precautionary measures taken by ALMA against the COVID-19 virus please have a look at https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/precautionary-measures-against-covid-19/

Please note that the Cycle 8 Call for Proposals has been suspended due to COVID-19

The ALMA Director, on behalf of the Joint ALMA Observatory and the partner organizations in East Asia, Europe, and North America, is pleased to announce that the ALMA Cycle 8 Call for Proposals for scientific observations is now open.

As everyone is aware, the novel coronavirus COVID-19 continues to impact the global community.  As such, the ALMA Director, along with the regional partners, have decided to delay the proposal deadline for the ALMA Cycle 8 Call for Proposals to NO EARLIER than 1500 UT on 19 May, 2020. More information is provided in the following News Item.

ALMA continues to carefully monitor the situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the evolving global situation. The next update to the community will be provided NO LATER than 21 April, 2020.  For additional questions regarding the Cycle 8 Call for Proposals, contact the ALMA Helpdesk at http://help.almascience.org.

ALMA is strongly committed to ensure that the proposal review process is as fair and impartial as possible. Analysis of the proposal rankings in previous cycles has identified systematics that may signify the presence of biases in the review process (see Systematics in the ALMA Proposal Review Rankings). In an effort to reduce biases as much as possible, ALMA will use a dual-anonymous proposal review process starting in Cycle 8.

We are happy to announce that, since March 16 it is also possible to inspect and download data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) through ESASky (http://sky.esa.int). This has been possible thanks to a collaboration between the ESA's ESAC Science Data Centre (ESDC) and the ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Leiden Observatory invites applications for a Program Manager position at the European ALMA Regional Center node in the Netherlands, Allegro. The position will be filled at an Assistant or Associate Research Scientist level and is offered for an initial period of up to 6 years. Continuation of employment after that period depends on availability of funding, and on qualifications and performance of the candidate. The position includes a 50% allocation for independent research. For more details on this position and how to apply, see https://jobs.strw.leidenuniv.nl/2020/allegropm.

The European ALMA Regional Centre (EU ARC) offers support to a large community of researchers hosted by European institutions. The support is offered to the ALMA user community through seven ARC Nodes and a Centre of Expertise which are spread across Europe, as well as the central ARC which is at ESO. The aim of this Special Session during the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society is to bring together European ALMA users and the researchers providing support at the different EU ARC Nodes. This is a great opportunity for current and future users of ALMA to discuss new scientific results, observation and data reduction strategies, foster collaborations, and brainstorm on development and implementation of software from the user community. Additionally, it offers the opportunity to identify the need for new capabilities, some of which could be implemented in the near future, such as data combination from different array configurations, pipeline products delivery, and archive mining.

More information can be found at the splinter session webpage. The deadline for abstract submissions is 2 March 2020.

The radio astronomy group at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy invites applications for a postdoctoral position to work on galaxy evolution studies at radio- and (sub-)mm wavelengths and join the German Node of the ALMA Regional Centre. The position is for three years with the posibility of extension to six years.

The deadline for applications is March 1, 2020. For more information see https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/d3408a08

The ARC network now has a social media presence! We aim to report on everything from insider information on the latest European ALMA results to life at the nodes, reports from both technical and scientific meetings and workshops, and exclusive insights into what it's like to be an (ALMA) astronomer. Come and join us on Facebook (@ALMAEUARC), Instagram (@alma_europe) or Twitter (@ALMA_Europe)!