The ESO research studentship programme provides an outstanding opportunity for Ph.D. students to experience the exciting scientific environment at one of the world's leading observatories for a period of up to two years.

If you wish to conduct a PhD in astronomy-astrophysics within one of the largest centres of astrophysical research in the world, which covers every subject from planets, stars, and galaxies to cosmology, you should seriously consider applying to the IMPRS studentship programme in Munich.

The new ALMA Science Verification (SV) release contains commissioning test data of quasars obtained during the long baseline campaigns in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The data were taken to study the stability of the relative amplitude and phase of the system and the atmosphere. See the ALMA announcement for more details and the ALMA SV page for a description of the datasets available.

Principal Investigators (PIs) of ALMA Cycle 4 proposals received notification letters of the proposal review results on 8 August 2016. A total of 707 proposals were selected for scheduling on ALMA from among the 1573 received; two of the 29 Large Programmes were selected. The complete list of A+B projects can be found here.

All images obtained with the High Acuity Wide field K-band Imager (HAWK-I), from the beginning of regular operations (April 2008) until October 2015 are now published as reduced data (burst mode excluded) via the ESO Science Archive Facility.

A new data release of science products resulting from the VPHAS+ (VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge) Public Survey is now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface at the ESO Science Archive Facility.

High-quality echelle spectra of a homogeneous sample of 100 QSOs with redshifts between 3.5 and 4.5, covering the spectral range from 315 to 2500 nm, have been obtained in the course of the ESO observing programme "Quasars and their absorption lines: a legacy survey of the high-redshift Universe with VLT/X-shooter" (Programme 189.A-0424; PI Sebastien Lopez). This dataset represents the largest spectroscopic survey of high-redshift QSOs with simultaneous rest-frame UV/optical coverage to date, enabling a wide range of research topics, including intergalactic medium, active galactic nuclei and cosmology (Lopez et al. 2016).

In June 2016, ESO Council decided to bring forward the first light of E-ELT Phase 1 from 2026 to 2024, even in the eventuality that Brazil does not join and a loan is required in the future to balance possible cash-flow.

With the release of the telescope schedule, preparation of Service Mode (SM) observations (Phase 2) starts. The deadline for the submission of the Phase 2 material for Period 98 observations is 4 August 2016.

The 98th Observing Programmes Committee (OPC) met on 18–20 May 2016. A total of 1140 (8-hour equivalent) nights of Visitor Mode and Service Mode observations were allocated on the VLT/VLTI, VISTA, VST, the 3.6-metre and NTT and APEX telescopes. Of these, 165 nights were allocated to filler programmes. The submission deadline for Phase 2 Service Mode observations is 4 August 2016; see separate announcement.