This is an exciting time in gravitational-wave astronomy! LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA (LVK) just finished their fourth observing run. The LVK collaboration is fully engaged in open science and made data from the past three observing runs (O1, O2, and O3) and the beginning of O4 (O4a) publicly available through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center (GWOSC). This data include over 200 detections of gravitational waves coming from coalescence of compact objects and the list continues to grow as more confirmed detections are added.
Since 2018, the GWOSC has organized the annual Open Data Workshop, a crash-course in gravitational-wave data analysis where participants can learn data analysis and practice using the same data and software as those used for data analysis by members of the LVK collaboration. The workshop includes lectures, software tutorials, quiz questions, and a data challenge.
This year’s edition is organized by the Laboratoire des 2 Infinis – Toulouse (L2IT) and will take place between April 20th and April 23rd. It will be hosted in a hybrid style: participants can participate either in-person in Toulouse (France), in presence of the speakers and mentors for the tutorials, or are welcome to join the closest study hub or participate online. Participation is free but registration is mandatory. To join us, please register through the Thinkific platform.
Every team is welcome to organize a study hub. If you do this, please announce it at https://ask.igwn.org/t/open-data-workshop-2026-study-hubs/1411.
See you at the 2026 edition of the Open Data Workshop!
