The Young European Radio Astronomers Conference has been held almost every year since 1968. Graduate students and early-career postdocs from all over Europe meet for a few days to give presentations. ‘Europe’ generally includes any country from Russia in the East to Portugal in the west, plus affiliates of the European VLBI Network, RadioNet or other current bodies. YERAC covers all aspects of radio astronomy, from the Sun out to the cosmic microwave background, from stars and planets to the most distant galaxies, using single dish and interferometric techniques, models and theoretical work. YERAC is especially valuable in forging pan-European links between new astronomers which frequently lead to fruitful collaborations over many decades.
The purpose of YERAC is for undergraduate, graduate and young post-doctoral students in radio astronomy to meet each other and present their work. For many of the participants, YERAC is in fact their first international meeting, and it provides them with a good opportunity to get practice giving talks about their research. The main sessions are therefore exclusively for their talks and posters, although a few more experienced researchers are present to answer questions and hold a surgery on presentation techniques or other assistance as required. The contributions will be published electronically. Participation in YERAC is in general by invitation (which are sent out to European institutions and universities so that Directors of these institutes should nominate participants), however any graduate and young post-doctoral student can apply.
Since 2004 the organization of YERAC is essentially supported by the European Commission through the RadioNet project. The current RadioNet (www.radionet-org.eu) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730562.