Why this workshop?

Developing code that can be reused and shared amongst collaborators is a growing part of an astronomer’s job. Good coding practices for creating openly available software are essential for research transparency, collaboration, as well as publishing in high-impact journals. At the same time, in the era of big data and high-resolution simulations, advanced statistical techniques through a Bayesian framework and their software implementation are more important than ever to conduct cutting-edge science.

ASTRODAT will help late-stage PhD students and ECRs in Astronomy come together and develop these skills.

Do you often feel like you had some training during your PhD, but now that you're past the first few years, you need the next level of training?

This workshop is for you! We are aiming to build on the foundation provided by the workshops aimed at first-year PhD students.

The ASTRODAT workshop is aims to build the necessary skills to tackle the huge amounts of data from current and furture facilities, such as ESA Euclid, Rubin LSST, DESI, ELT HARMONI, JWST, and the SKA, which will drive unprecedented progress in the next decade.
On top of the petabytes of data produced by observatories, cosmological and astrophysical simulations run at facilities such as DiRAC already produce similar amounts of data while requiring tens of billions of CPU hours to run.
The processing and modelling of this wealth of data require advanced programming and data science skills.
ASTRODAT will offer specific training in these areas.

Workshop Format

The week-long workshop will contain two components:
1. Hands-on lectures and workshops each morning, building skills in statistics and code development with topics such as:

• Collaborative coding
• Testing code effectively
• Optimisation and JAX
• Bayesian statistics and hierarchical models
• Simulation-Based Inference (SBI)

2. Collaborative hack sessions most afternoons, putting into practice what was learnt in the morning through various activities:

• Applying the learnt skills to real-world problems in astrophysics
• Developing a package in the realm of astrostatistics over the week in a group
• Contributing to existing open-source code

Participants will be assigned to a hack session group according to their research interests and expertise.

The schedule will be made available here closer to the workshop date.

Organisers

Co-Chairs of SOC & LOC:

Bron Reichardt Chu (Durham University)
Max von Wietersheim-Kramsta (Durham University)

SOC:

Katherine Harborne (Durham University) GitHub
Jason McEwen (University College London)
James Nightingale (Newcastle University)
Kyle Oman (Durham University)
Aarya Patil (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy)
Nency Patel (Durham University)
Natalia Porqueres (CEA Saclay)
Richard Regan (DIRAC, Durham University)
Tobias Weinzierl (Durham University)

Important Dates

Deadline for EOI: 17 July 2025
Notification of acceptance: 31 July 2025
Registration Fee Due: TBD
Workshop Dates: 8 - 12 September 2025

Registration

Student Registration Fee: £105
General Registration Fee: £150

Registration includes:
Access to all lectures and hack sessions
Lunches and coffee breaks
Conference dinner

Limited travel and accommodation support is available from UKRI STFC and the ESA Academy for students and ECRs.
Please indicate your need in the form below. The conditions for the ESA Academy scholarship are listed below.

To join us, please fill out this form:

You will need to include your CV (up to 2 pages), a brief statement on your motivations for joining ASTRODAT (less than 2000 characters), a brief description of your past coding experiences (less than 1000 characters), and a possible coding project idea to undertake with a group during the workshop (less than 1500 characters). For more information on the sections, see the link above!

Logistics

Accomodation:

Accommodation should be at a college and will be organised when registering.
The cost of accommodation is not included in the registration fee.

Venue: Getting to Durham University

The building is called Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics West, also known as OCW.
Not to be confused with the neighbouring OC.
Lower Mountjoy,
South Rd,
Durham DH1 3LE

By Plane
Closest Airport: Newcastle International Airport.
Other Airports:
Edinburgh Airport, then take a train from Edinburgh Waverley to Durham.
All London airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton or City airports), then take a train from London King's Cross to Durham.
By Train
Get the train to Durham Railway Station.
The station is along the east coast main line with many connections operated by LNER, Transpennine Express, CrossCountry, etc.
Bus
Buses from the centre of Durham to the Ogden Centre leave from the Durham Bus Station.
The bus stop is called "New Inn - Church Street" and is located on the A177 road.
Buses accept cash, contactless payment, or QR codes from the bus app.

Visa information

From 2nd of April 2025, an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is necessary to travel to the UK, even from the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
It costs £16 to apply for one.
It can take up to 3 working days for the procedure.

Please check the UK government website for more information on how to apply for a visa or an ETA.
Do not hesitate to contact us if you need a letter of invitation for your visa application.

ESA Academy Scholarship

The ESA Education Office is pleased to sponsor up to 3 tertiary education students to attend
ASTRODAT: AstroStatistics and Research-Oriented Data Analysis course in the frame of the
ESA Academy Short Course Scholarship programme. The scholarship will cover the student
registration fees (directly paid by ESA Education Office) and provide a maximum reimbursement of
EUR 350 towards travel and EUR 400 toward accommodation expenses (for 6 nights max), which
will be reimbursed via a single bank transfer after the course and will be paid upon submission
of receipts.

To be eligible for an ESA Academy Short Course Scholarship, students must fulfil the following criteria
at the time of application:

• be minimum 18 years old at the time of the short course;
• be a citizen of an ESA Member State, Associate Member, or Canada;
• be enrolled as a Ph.D student in a tertiary education academic programme (not graduating before the short course);
• not be able to attend the course through their academic programme;
• not benefit from an overlapping financial support to attend this short course, unless duly justified;
• attend the entire short course;
• agree with the conditions of the ESA Academy's Privay Policy;
• fulfil the application criteria for the ASTRODAT workshop outlined above.

Priority will be given to students who have less than 2 years of professional experience and have
never taken part in an activity sponsored by the ESA Education Office.

Click here to fill-in the application form.

The deadline for applications is 17th July 2025 at 23:59 CEST.
The decision by the Selection Committee will be communicated by 31st July 2025.

ESA is committed to achieving diversity and creating an inclusive environment. To this end,
applications from all eligible candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity,
beliefs, age, disability, social origin, or other characteristics are welcome.