OAD Regional Offices Activities - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development

Regional Offices Activities: Jan – Mar 2025

Continue to seek funding for the next Astronomy Workshop in the Andes (September 2025).
Working with tourism promoters and astronomers to develop bilateral projects related to astrotourism in our countries.
Developing a diploma in observational astronomy for Indigenous professors in Colombia in support of the University of the Pueblos, the University of Cauca, and the Andean ROAD-IAU.
Continue to support the proposal for a “dark skies” law in Colombia.

AW-ROAD, in collaboration with AUASS, led numerous educational and public outreach activities across Arab countries during Q1 2025, emphasizing inclusive astronomy communication, gender equality, and dark skies awareness.
AW-ROAD and its Arabic Language Expertise Center (AW-LOAD) strengthened Arabic-language science communication, offering specialized programs and capacity-building initiatives for educators, students, and amateur astronomers.
Lecture: The Solar System (10 Feb 2025), Al-Qadisiyah Girls School – Jordan
Telescope Workshop & Solar Spot Observation (12 Feb 2025), Al-Fudein Secondary School – Mafraq
Lecture: The Moon, Ministry of Education – Jordan
Specialized Astronomy Course for Amateurs: “How Do Astronomers Study Stars?” (11,13,15 Jan 2025), Amman, Jordan

The EA-ROAD Coordinator attended the 5th edition of the African Astronomical Society (AfAS) Conference and General Assembly, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from March 23–28, 2025.
EA-ROAD participated in the OAD Special Session on “Showcasing Astronomy Development in Africa” at AfAS 2025, presenting on OAD-supported projects and their impact in the East Africa region.

Regional projects and events

Three Regional Data Science Hackathons were conducted in Ethiopia and Kenya as part of the 2025 Hackathons for Development (Hack4Dev) initiative, held from February to March 2025. The initiative was funded by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) – Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD).
East African countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania hosted various events from January to February 2025 to celebrate the rare planetary alignment known as the ‘planetary parade
Ethiopia was selected to host the 8th Series of the AfAS Conference and General Assembly in 2028 — great news for East Africa, as it could positively boost active participation from neighboring countries and support the development of astronomy in the region.

National representatives network:
- Working on re-appointing a network of National E-ROAD Representatives (NERs) through the European Astronomical Society (EAS) and affiliated national astronomical societies.
Erasmus+ ICM implementation:
- Nigeria: Bonaventure I. Okere and Onyeuwaoma Nnaemeka Don visiting Leiden, March – May
- Colombia: At least two visitors coming to Leiden, May/June/July
- Ethiopia: Rudolf S. Le Poole visiting Ethiopia, May/June
- Armenia: Kateryna Frantseva and Pedro Russo visiting Armenia, May
  - 6 visitors from Armenia visiting Leiden, June
Meeting: Recovery Plan for Ukrainian Astronomy: Post-war Recovery in Ukraine through Astronomy
- Leiden, Netherlands | June 9-14, 2025
Hack4Dev EU
- Submitted an EU proposal.

The Annual Report for the Women and Girls in Astronomy Program (WGAP) has been released. Report can be fund in our website: NA ROAD
5 Project leads attended the AAS245 and presented their project outcome.
Refined the charge of our Advisory Board, welcomed new members, and renewed the membership of actively engaged individuals. Additionally, developed a strategy to enhance ongoing engagement with our Advisory Board members moving forward.
ZOONIVERSE program: The Zooniverse (PI: Laura Trouille, NA-ROAD Governing Council Member) received a grant from The Kavli Foundation to explore the ethics of machine learning in citizen science in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics (KICP); the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public at the University of California, Berkeley. The effort will culminate in recommendations to guide the use of machine learning in citizen science projects as well as public communication about that work. Those guidelines will be hashed out in a series of small workshops and working sessions, with extensive input from both the broader scientific community and the millions-strong Zooniverse community. LInk: Relaying-public-input-on-machine-learning-to-researchers

Coordination of online meetings (January, February, and March)
Exploratory discussions between the PLOAD coordination team and a representative of the Students’ Association of the Independent University of Angola, with the aim of establishing a partnership and facilitating astronomy training for the association’s members, with the support of the university.
Meeting with the representative of Orion Space Portugal, with the aim of establishing a partnership, especially in the area of scientific dissemination in Portuguese.
Participation in the steering committee meeting on February 6th.
Participation in the “IAU OAD projects onboarding event”, February 17th, and “IAU OAD projects presentation”, February 21st.
Participation in the Showcasing Astronomy for Development in Africa event, on March 24th, at the 5th Annual Conference and General Assembly of the African Astronomical Society 2025

Dark Sky Star Party 2025: Held a star party at one of our designated dark sky sites to promote astrotourism. Over 60 telescopes, many volunteers, amateur astronomers are involved. 2,366 total participants recorded
Astronomy for the visual-impaired kids camp: 2nd edition: 50 visual-impaired students from Central Thailand flew to Northern Thailand to learn about astronomy, view planetarium show, visit facilities and stargaze atop the highest peak of Thailand
ASEAN Astronomy Camp 2025: Entry-level youth astronomy camp for 15-19 years old students enrolling in secondary school. ASEAN (Southeast Asia) focused, but open to all nationalities. Received overwhelming support with over 317 applicants from 15 nationalities applied. A total of 43 students accepted + 5 observers. Widely successful with overwhelmingly positive feedback from students who formed strong bond with each other. This camp is already planned to be recurring annually.
K-12 Astronomy Education Conference in Asia (K-12AstroAsia2025) announced and open for abstracts: This astronomy education conference in Asia is aimed to bring Asia together, along with some other international participants to discuss astronomy education aspects with a special focus on Asia. Conference is to be held in September 1-4. It is now officially open for abstracts until end of May.

Public engagement and star gazing was held on the 25th of January heralding the planetary alignment.
Hosted the women and girls in Astronomy on the 13th March, 2025. We had in attendance about 100 persons. The activities of the day include interactive session with female scientists and engineers from different parts of the World and a planetarium show.
ERASMUS + Mobility with EROAD is ongoing and will be concluded in July this year.
PAPSSN will be concluded this year and we are applying for the second phase of the project.
Won the Cultural Astronomy collaboration with Michael Rutkowski Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy, Minnesota State University, Mankato still in view.

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