Joining up Users for Maximising the Profile, the Innovation and the Necessary Globalisation of JIVE (Jumping Jive)

Research Project, 2016 – 2021

Joining up Users for Maximising the Profile, the Innovation and the Necessary Globalisation of JIVE” (JUMPING JIVE) aims to prepare and position European Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) for the SKA era, and to secure the role of JIV-ERIC in the European and global landscape of Research Infrastructures.

On a European scale, the proposed activities will raise the profile of JIVE among scientists and operators of radio-astronomical facilities, by widely advocating its science capabilities and its role as research infrastructure provider within the international radio astronomy community. These activities will focus on outreach and on reinforcing science cases for the next decade. New partnerships will be pursued, and in addition JIVE will expand its potential user base by offering geodetic and enhanced astrometric processing. Finally, the possibility of the International LOFAR Telescope using the same ERIC governance structure in the future will be investigated.

With respect to global VLBI, the aim is to place JIV-ERIC in a leading role in the definition of scientific and technical standards in the SKA era. JIVE will take charge of a number of operational interfaces that will be essential for truly global VLBI, and establish close connections with the African VLBI Network and the SKA as the main strategic partners for the next decade