ESO VLT Beyond 2030: the role of INAF

8 Oct 2026, 13:00 → 9 Oct 2026, 16:00 Europe/Rome

Auditorium Nazionale Ernesto Capocci

Andrea Bianco (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Enzo Brocato (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Giovanni Cresci (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Giuseppina Micela (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Isabella Pagano (INAF), Marcella Marconi (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Pietro Schipani (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

ESO VLT Beyond 2030: the role of INAF

ESO is preparing to define a roadmap for the next generation of instruments for the Very Large Telescope – VLT through the VLT Beyond 2030 call. In this context, European institutes are organising themselves to consolidate existing instrumentation ideas or to propose innovative new concepts. INAF, with its well-established technological expertise, spanning optomechanics, adaptive optics, cryogenics, and detector development, and its broad scientific community, stands as a key stakeholder in this landscape. 
This workshop aims to build a comprehensive, shared picture of INAF's positioning: identifying the instrument proposals in which the institute is already involved, emphasize the scientific goals, the synergies with existing or future facilities/instrumentation, clarifying both technological and scientific held in the various proposals, uncovering possible synergies across the different units, and structuring a coordinated strategy to maximise INAF's impact and visibility in the selection process for the future VLT instrumentation.

We encourage all INAF researchers and technologists to attend the meeting and contribute to building a shared and comprehensive picture of INAF's positioning in the VLT Beyond 2030 landscape. 
Contributions/abstracts may cover:

• science cases
• technological contributions (optomechanics, adaptive optics, cryogenics, detectors, SE, software,...)
• involvement in existing proposals

 

Your ideas, expertise and vision are essential to consolidate our community's strategy and maximise INAF's impact.

 

Follow the link for more information about the VLT Beyond 2030 call at ESO.

 

Note per la registrazione

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Thursday 8 October

13:00 → 14:00 Registration

14:00 → 14:10 Welcome

14:10 → 16:10 Session 1

14:10 ESO VLT: status and call

Speaker: Cêline Peroux

14:50 INAF involvement in VLT

Speaker: Marcella Marconi

15:10 MAVIS - The MCAO Next Generation Facility Instrument for the VLT

Speaker: Giovanni Cresci

15:30 SAXO+: Enhancing SPHERE high-contrast capabilities

Speaker: Emiliano Diolaiti

16:10 → 16:40 Coffee break

16:40 → 18:00 Session 2

16:40 MICHELANGELO: an L/M high resolution spectrograph for exoplanetary science

Speaker: Leonardo Testi

16:55 The science case of MICHELANGELO: a deep, high-resolution view of the L-band and M-band sky

Speaker: Lorenzo Pino

17:10 Resolving protostellar outflow rotation: from ERIS to MAVIS and beyond

Speaker: Antonio Armeni

17:30 Observational cosmology with Surface Brightness Fluctuations from Euclid to AO-assisted data

Speaker: Michele Cantiello

17:40 TILING I: Field-level Bayesian reconstruction of cosmological initial conditions during the epoch of reionization

Speaker: Nikolaos Triantafyllou

17:50 Low-Surface Brightness research in the Next Era of Astronomy

Speaker: Marilena Spavone

18:00 → 19:00 Discussion / Round Table: What Cutting-Edge VLT Science Made in INAF?

What Cutting-Edge VLT Science Made in INAF?

Consiglio Scientifico

18:00 Round Table: What Cutting-Edge VLT Science Made in INAF?

Speaker: Consiglio Scientifico

19:00 → 21:00 Welcome cocktail

Friday 9 October

09:00 → 11:00 Session 3

09:00 Synergies with other facilities (SKA,CTA)

Speaker: Filippo Maria Zerbi (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

09:30 Synergies with space facilities

Speaker: Adriano Fontana (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10:00 HRMOS: a high-resolution, multi-object spectrograph for the VLT

Speaker: Maria Sofia Randich (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10:20 The need for a wide-field IFU at 1 micron on the VLT

Speaker: Nicolas Bouche (CRAL)

10:40 From VIMOS to 2030 and Beyond: The COSMOS Group’s Expertise in Spectroscopic Software

Speaker: Adriana Gargiulo (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

11:00 → 11:05 Group Photo

11:05 → 11:25 Coffee break

11:25 → 13:05 Session 4

11:25 Gravity+

Speaker: Antoine Mérand

11:45 ESPRESSOred: Towards a full visible and near infrared high-resolution and high-fidelity spectroscopic facility

Speaker: Xavier Dumusque

12:05 SHARPS: concept for a short-wavelength, 3rd-generation VLTI instrument

Speaker: Stefan Kraus

12:25 A multi-band, fast imager and spectrograph optimised for transients

Speaker: Antonio de Ugarte Postigo (LAM-CNRS)

12:45 CUBES (Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph) - Bringing a unique capability to ESO's VLT

Speaker: Stefano Covino

13:05 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:30 Panel Discussion: INAF's Role and Commitment Now and in the ELT Era

INAF's Role and Commitment Now and in the ELT Era

Presidente, DS, UTG-A, UTG-B, Adriano Fontana, Filippo Maria Zerbi