Annual Reports
The Europlanet AISBL Annual Report provides an overview of the organisation’s activities in the period.
2026
2026 Annual Report Executive Summary
Europlanet is a non-profit association that provides infrastructure and services to support the planetary science community in Europe and around the world. Activities include the provision of access to state-of-the-art planetary simulation and analysis facilities, the development and maintenance of data tools and services, and a range of programmes to support the community. Its annual meeting, the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC), is the largest gathering of the planetary community in Europe.
Established through a series of projects funded by the European Commission between 2005 and 2024, Europlanet is now a sustainable organisation funded by membership fees, income from EPSC, consultancy and grants. The creation in 2023 of the Europlanet Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), hosted by the Planetary Atmospheres Group of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), has provided a secure legal framework for ongoing Europlanet activities.
The Europlanet Executive Office provides administrative and technical support for Europlanet’s membership and structures, including the management of its digital infrastructure, dissemination channels and events programme.
Following on from the success of the 2025 joint meeting of EPSC with the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) in Helsinki – the largest planetary gathering ever held in Europe, with over 1800 participants – EPSC2026 will take place in The Hague in the Netherlands. The meeting will be the first time EPSC has been held in the Benelux region, with over 1200 participants expected to attend and 118 bursaries awarded to students, early career researchers, participants from under-represented countries, teachers, outreach providers and amateur astronomers.
Over the past 12 months, both organisational and individual memberships have shown significant growth. Europlanet has offered access to 25 facilities in its distributed Research and Technology Infrastructure. A new Regional Hub has been established in Colombia, and the 10 European Hubs have all been active. The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network has organised a successful Annual Week in Nantes, relaunched its podcast, and organised a comprehensive programme of activities at EPSC2026. Europlanet’s Committees and Working Groups have also been active and Europlanet has provided €30,000 funding to support community initiatives, including summer schools, meetings, collaborative projects and outreach programmes.
The Planetary and Geological Mapping (GMAP) Winter School in January had over 300 registered participants and led to individual membership of Europlanet crossing a threshold of 700 for the first time. Webinars, online Teams Days and Discord have provided year-round opportunities for the membership to network and shape Europlanet strategy.
The Europlanet association also participated in some recent European Commission (EC) funding bids for projects to consolidate research infrastructure across the Physical Sciences and Engineering domain. If successful, these initiatives will strengthen Europlanet’s role and capacity to support the planetary community in Europe and beyond, and have already led to new opportunities for collaboration and strategic partnerships with organisations in the fields of astronomy, astroparticle physics, nuclear and particle physics and analytical sciences.
2025
2025 Annual Report Executive Summary
In 2025, Europlanet celebrated its 20th birthday. Established through a series of projects funded by the European Commission between 2005 and 2024, Europlanet provides infrastructure and networks to support the planetary science community in Europe and around the world.
Today, Europlanet is a substantial, self-sustaining resource for the community, providing access to a suite of state-of-the-art planetary simulation and analysis facilities, virtual data tools and services and delivering measurable scientific, technological, educational and socioeconomic impacts. Its annual meeting, the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC), is the largest gathering of the planetary community in Europe.
The creation in 2023 of the Europlanet Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), hosted by the Planetary Atmospheres Group of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), has provided a secure legal structure for the sustainability of Europlanet infrastructure, the Europlanet Society (established) 2018 and its activities, including its Regional Hubs and Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network.
The Europlanet Executive Office provides administrative and technical support for Europlanet’s membership and structures, including management of its digital infrastructure, dissemination channels and events programme. Following a tendering exercise in the first part of 2025, the Executive Office is hosted by the University of Kent, UK, with technical support provided by Arkad-IA in Italy.
All Europlanet’s Regional Hubs, Committees and Working Groups have reported significant activity in 2025, in particular in the run-up to the hybrid joint meeting of EPSC with the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS), which is taking place in Helsinki and online from 7-12 September. EPSC-DPS20205 is expected to be the largest planetary conference held in Europe to date, with almost 2000 participants. Other Europlanet meetings held in 2025 include the Planetary and Geological Mapping (GMAP) Winter School in February, which had over 750 registered participants, the EPEC Annual Week conference for early careers in Berlin in May, Europlanet Teams Day, a new interactive format for community engagement, and workshops in Colombia.
At the Europlanet General Assembly in September 2024, the Europlanet membership approved a new category of organisational membership to provide a secure stream of funding for the most impactful services developed and optimised during twenty years of EC-funded Europlanet projects. Organisational subscriptions were launched in December 2024. The income from these memberships, alongside existing revenue sources from individual memberships and the settlement of the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC), has enabled Europlanet to maintain its core mobility and access programmes, community services, training and career development programmes, which have benefited tens of thousands of researchers over the past two decades.
With both organisational and individual membership growing, Europlanet is building a secure foundation for the decades to come.
2024 Annual Report Executive Summary
Europlanet was established through a series of projects, funded by the European Commission between 2005 and 2024, to create infrastructure and networks to support the planetary science community in Europe and around the world. Over the past 20 years, Europlanet has grown into a substantial resource for the community, coordinating the world’s largest collection of planetary simulation and analysis facilities, embedding planetary data in the Virtual Observatory and building a global network of institutions and facilities that, through collaboration and exchange of expertise, deliver measurable scientific, technological, educational and socioeconomic impacts. In 2018, the Europlanet Society was launched to support the sustainability of networking programmes through a model of individual subscriptions, as well as the income from the annual Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC).
The past 18 months have been a transformational and challenging time for Europlanet. The establishment of the Europlanet Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), hosted by the Planetary Atmospheres Group of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), has provided a secure legal structure for the sustainability of Europlanet’s activities. Eight new or re-elected members of the Executive Board (the governing body of both Europlanet AISBL and the Europlanet Society) were announced on 10 November 2023 and started their four-year term. The structures of the Europlanet Society, including its Regional Hubs and Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network, have also been undergoing transition, with many new Chairs and volunteers taking on roles. A Europlanet Sustainability Working Group was established after the first Europlanet Research Infrastructure Meeting (ERIM 2023) in Bratislava, Slovakia to oversee sustainability planning for the Society.
The most recent EC-funded project, the €10 million Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI), came to an end on 31 July 2024. In September 2024, the Europlanet membership has been asked to approve a new category of organisational membership to ensure the continuity of the most impactful services developed and optimised during twenty years of EC-funded Europlanet projects. The introduction of the proposed model for organisational subscriptions, alongside existing revenue sources, will enable Europlanet to maintain its core mobility and access programmes, community services, training and career development programmes. These programmes have benefited tens of thousands of researchers, at all career stages and across every continent, over the past 20 years and have led to avenues of research that, as the evaluation shows, would not have come about without Europlanet’s support.
2023 Annual Report Executive Summary
2023 has been a transformational year for Europlanet. The establishment of the Europlanet Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), hosted by the Planetary Atmospheres Group of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), has provided a secure legal structure for the sustainability of Europlanet’s activities.
The membership of the Europlanet Society has reached over 600 for the first time, and this cohort will elect new members of the Executive Board, to be announced on 10 November 2023. The structures of the Europlanet Society, including its Regional Hubs and Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network, are also undergoing transition, with many new Chairs and volunteers taking on roles within the last 12 months. The Society has supported the community through bursaries, grants and prizes totalling over €60,000 over the year.
The Society organised a hybrid joint meeting of the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) with the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) in San Antonio, Texas, USA and online, during which a quarter of the 918 participants came from Europe. 23 members of the Society were supported to attend the meeting through bursaries for early career professionals and students, researchers from under-represented states and amateur astronomers.
The Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) project’s second periodic report was submitted and approved by the European Commission in 2023, and over 100 research visits to facilities and field sites have been completed to date through its Transnational Access programme. The first Europlanet Research Infrastructure Meeting (ERIM) 2023, held in Bratislava in June, brought the community together for discussions, workshops and training on Europlanet RI services, and provided an opportunity to revitalise the networks and structures of the Europlanet Society. ERIM also kick-started a sustainability roadmapping programme for Europlanet that will result in a draft operational and business plan to be presented in September 2024.
