Gaia is the ESA cornerstone mission set to revolutionise our understanding of the Milky Way. It is designed to map over one billion stars with three instruments to collect astrometric, photometric and spectroscopic data on stars in the Milky Way and in galaxies belonging to the Local Group, distant galaxies, quasars and solar system objects.

A web site with detailed descriptions of the UK involvement in the project can be found at http://gaia.ac.uk

For the ESA Gaia page see www.rssd.esa.int/gaia

The IoA has a lead role developing significant elements of the data processing and analysis systems required by Gaia. Specifically the IoA has the lead role in Photometric Analysis System. For details of the DPAC see www.rssd.esa.int/gaia/dpac

The IoA is also the lead group developing the Gaia Science Alerts pipeline. Gaia Science Alerts are publishing new transient sources discovered on a daily basis. The Alerts webpages can be found at http://gsaweb.ast.cam.ac.uk/alerts/home. The wiki pages for the Gaia Science Alerts Working Group include details of workshops and meetings related to this area.