SPACIOUS final design review

28 Sept 2026, 09:00 → 30 Sept 2026, 16:00 UTC

CSEC seminar room (King's Buildings, UoE)

Nigel Hambly (Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)

Final design review meeting for the science platform framework developed by the Horizon Europe SPACIOUS collaboration. 

The purpose of this meeting is to make a detailed review of all project components. The goal is to ensure that all systems are fit for the intended purpose and that concrete plans are in place for the preservation of developments and production operations beyond the lifetime of the project.

Meeting location: University of Edinburgh, King's Building campus. The meeting will be held in the CSEC seminar room which is accessed via the 3rd floor of the James Clerk Maxwell Building, past the Magnet Cafe. The entrance to the JCMB is at the northwestern corner of the building next to the circular feature in the map, and on the opposite (south) side of JCMB to the Erskine Williamson Building which houses CSEC. It can be accessed by walking into the campus via either James Dewar Road off West Mains Road to the north of the campus, or via Max Born Crescent off Mayfield Road to the east but the former access is probably the easiest: walk down James Dewar Road through the car parking area next to KB House and the Murray Library, take a left turn and proceed briefly before talking a right turn before the Nucleus Building. The entrance to JCMB is then just a short walk along the pedestrianised way and past the circular paved feature.

Attendance is by invitation only.

Monday 28 September

09:00 → 11:00 Morning sessions: 1 - Framework presentation and review (Edinburgh)

09:00 Welcome and logistics

Speaker: Dr Nigel Hambly (Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)

09:10 Management update: SPACIOUS, and SPACIOUS-NET

Speaker: Prof. Xavi Luri (UB)

09:30 Framework organisational and non-technical aspects

Speaker: Dr Nigel Hambly (Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)

10:00 Framework update: technical aspects

Speaker: Dr Brendan O'Brien (IfA Edinburgh)

10:30 Framework discussion

Speaker: All

11:00 → 11:30 Coffee

11:30 → 13:00 Morning sessions: 2 - Applications presentations and review (Lisbon / A Coruna)

13:00 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:30 Afternoon sessions: 3 - SPACIOUS@home presentations and review

15:30 → 16:00 Tea

16:00 → 17:30 Afternoon sessions: 4 - devops interactions and hackathon (all)

19:00 → 21:00 Informal dinner TBC

Tuesday 29 September

09:00 → 11:00 Morning sessions: 5 - Private and public Cloud deployments (Edinburgh and BSC)

10:00 Private Cloud (OpenStack) deployments

Speaker: Malcolm Illingworth (IfA Edinburgh)

10:30 Google Cloud deployment and related science challenges

Speaker: Eduardo Belotto Evangelista (UB)

11:00 → 11:30 Coffee

11:30 → 13:00 Morning sessions: 6 - Science challenge workflows (UB and Edinburgh)

11:30 Internal science challenges 1, 2 and 4: update

Speaker: Dr Alfred Castro (UB)

11:50 Internal science challenge 3 (Euclid 3x2pt): update

Speaker: Dr Nigel Hambly (Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)

12:05 External challenges update

Speaker: Dr Alfred Castro (UB)

12:20 Gaia science example workflows from an end-user perspective

Speaker: Dr Michael Petersen (IfA Edinburgh)

12:45 Light curve workflows: VVVX, ALLWISEMEP and ZTF

Speaker: Simon Harnqvist (IfA Edinburgh)

13:00 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:30 Afternoon sessions: 7 - Operational legacy: plans for operation beyond end of project (all)

14:00 FAIR & Open Science for SPACIOUS: from guidelines to practice

Astrophysics has long been at the forefront of Open Science, from the community standards set by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) to the Open Access culture of ESA's flagship missions. However, translating the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) into everyday practice still requires deliberate choices at every stage of the data lifecycle. The SPACIOUS platform presents a relevant opportunity to implement these practices through a FAIR by design approach. As part of WP6 we present a set of FAIR and Open Science guidelines for SPACIOUS, grounded in the project's Data Management Plan and covering recommendations of FAIR Implementation Resources across the four FAIR pillars. The final aim of these guidelines is to act as a practical FAIR compliance panel for SPACIOUS users, mapping data and software products against FAIR requirements and implementation choices, while offering enough flexibility to be adapted to real scientific use cases and updated in accordance to the evolution of the SPACIOUS project.

Speaker: Dr Oscar Reina Garcia (BSC)

15:30 → 16:00 Tea

16:00 → 17:30 Afternoon sessions: 8 - devops interactions and hackathon (all)

Wednesday 30 September

09:00 → 11:00 Morning sessions: 9 - Outreach & dissemination presentation and discussion (Lisbon, all)

11:00 → 11:30 Coffee

11:30 → 13:00 Morning sessions: 10 - Detailed planning for the last phase of the project, and meeting wrap-up

13:00 → 14:00 Lunch and close of meeting

14:00 → 16:00 Pitch and putt (weather and airline schedules permitting)