Introductory Talk of the Global Emerging Radio Astronomy Foundation

The Global Emerging Radio Astronomy Foundation, or GERAF, was formed in response to the ongoing trend of internal funding resources in radio astronomy to be funnelled into large and ambitious projects at the expense of a variety of smaller, yet uniquely valuable facilities. GERAF seeks to source support for these facilities, that themselves are finding a new importance in the age of transient radio astronomy and which also have long provided essential training to generations of researchers. In this talk the motivation and operations of GERAF will be introduced along with status reports of the initial projects we have undertaken. If time permits possible future scenarios will also be discussed.

Brief CV of Dr. R. Burns:

Dr. Ross Burns earned his PhD in Astrophysics at Kagoshima University, Japan, and has worked as a radio astronomer in Japan and the Netherlands, focusing on the study of star formation and specializing in VLBI (very long baseline interferometry) observations. He currently leads the Maser Monitoring Organisation (M2O) and is one of the directors of the Global Emerging Radio Astronomy Foundation (GERAFoundation). His interests extend to radio telescope receiving systems and the operations of radio astronomy infrastructures, in addition to supporting local expertise through radio astronomy projects in developing countries.