ASTRONET was created by a group of European funding agencies in order to establish a comprehensive long-term planning for the development of European astronomy. The objective of this effort is to consolidate and reinforce the world-leading position that European astronomy has attained at the beginning of this 21st century.

The success of present-day European astronomy has been built by combining previously scattered resources into multilateral partnerships, the most important of which are ESO for ground-based optical astronomy and ESA for space astronomy. Developing this concept and its impact and expand it to all domains of astronomy and all of Europe requires a shared, comprehensive Science Vision and roadmap for future infrastructures in astronomy. In parallel, the barriers which impede coordinated joint projects among countries must be identified, and ways to overcome these barriers must to be proposed and tested.

To do so, ASTRONET will cover all astrophysical objects from the Sun and Solar system to the global structure of the Universe, as well as every observing approach, in space and from the ground, and from radiation at any wavelength to astroparticles and gravitational waves. It will address the whole “food chain” from infrastructure and technology development to observation, including the Virtual Observatory, modelling, and theory. Equally importantly, ways to better coordinate the planning and execution of research programmes in astronomy among European countries will be explored and demonstrated in practice.

The ASTRONET consortium, which is intended to widen, has ten participants at the moment:

• CNRS/INSU (coordinator), France,
• BMBF and PT-DESY, Germany,
• ESO, International,
• INAF, Italy,
• MCINN, Spain,
• NOTSA,
• NWO, the Netherlands,
• STFC, United Kingdom,
• NCBiR, Poland.

Fourteen Associates:

• ESA, International,
• MPG and DFG, Germany,
• LAS, Lithuania,
• SRC, Sweden,
• GNCA,Greece,
• HAS, Hungary,
• ESF, Estonia,
• SER, Switzerland,
• FWF, Austria,
• AI SAS, Slovak Republic,
• CAS, Czech Republic,
• ROSA, Romania,
• NAS, Ukraine.

And four Forum members:

• ISA, Israel,
• Institute of Astronomy of the University of Latvia,
• Academy of Finland,
• FNU, Denmark.

Starting September 2005, 1st, ASTRONET is financed by the EC up to a level of 2.5 M€, out of a total budget of 3.2 M€. The project duration is 4 years. ASTRONET is an ERA-Net financed by the European Commission FP6 under the initiative « Integrating and Strengthening the European Research Area (ERA) ».