Keynote Talk EXOA:

Astrobiology has seen significant advances over the past decades, from “a science without an object of study” to a highly integrated and interdisciplinary endeavour. It has influenced planetary science missions, trained its current and next generation of scientists, and built a strong community of passionate researchers. In the last 20 years, the European Astrobiology Network Association--EANA has accompanied these challenges and confirmed its central role for astrobiology in Europe. I will present the state of the art of astrobiology, its current developments, and future directions.

Journal Editor Talk:

The full-time editors of Nature and sister journals assess submitted papers according to criteria of novelty, relevance and significance by extensive literature browsing. This external 'bird’s eye' view confers objective clarity in identifying the main research trends in the field that can lead to publications in high-impact journals, which will be presented here together with some editorial hints.