e-MERLIN / VLBI National Radio Astronomy Facility

e-MERLIN science Legacy programme

The e-MERLIN Legacy programme

The e-MERLIN legacy programme has been devised to allow a number of major science projects to obtain considerable observing time with e-MERLIN during its first few years of operation. The overiding goal of this programme is to address the fundamental questions in astronomy and astrophysics, whilst also producing a substantial and lasting data legacy for use by the whole astronomical community.

The e-MERLIN Legacy Steering Group (LSG) were tasked with soliciting and establishing a cutting-edge Legacy Programme capable of fully exploiting e-MERLIN. In total LSG received proposals requesting a total of over 10,000 hours, involving 325 astronomers from over 100 institutes in more than 20 countries. The assessment process involved a rigorous and transparent assessment of each proposal by invited independent international reviewers and the LSG.

Following this extensive review the LSG and the e-MERLIN/MERLIN steering have announced a comprehensive legacy programme which will probe a wide range of astrophysical phenomena from planet and star formation to cosmology.

A full list of all approved e-MERLIN Legacy programmes is available. This page includes full science cases for each project and links to individual team webpages.

For further information on targets and science goals of the Legacy programme please contact emerlin[at]jb.man.ac.uk