Delegates can sign up to attend any of the lunches during the registration process. The lunches will run from 12:00-13:30.

Diversity Lunch (Monday 1st July; Location TBD)

The RAS is committed to creating and fostering a diverse and inclusive astronomy and geophysics community in which everyone is treated equitably. In this lunch session, chaired by Dr Sheila Kanani (Education, Outreach and Diversity officer at the RAS), we will give an update on diversity and equality within our community. Afterwards, Gary Loke - who has had an extensive career in equality policy and public affairs, and is currently Director of Knowledge, Innovation and Delivery at Advance HE (previously the Equality Challenge Unit) - will give a talk on race in STEM/academia.

Outreach Lunch (Tuesday 2nd July; Location TBD)

A lunch for delegates to NAM to meet, have discussions with, and draw inspiration from people involved in different aspects of public engagement in small groups. Includes an introduction to the IAU100 and RAS200 projects, which are currently encouraging engaging with communities.

UKSP & MIST Business Lunch (Wednesday 3rd July; Location TBD)

The UKSP-MIST business lunch is a meeting of the UK Solar Physics and Magnetosphere Ionosphere Solar Terrestrial communities. The business lunch will include reports from the UKSP and MIST Councils, and representatives of STFC will be present to discuss issues raised by members of both communities. Brief updates on potential future missions may also be provided followed by a discussion of our future plans.

Publishing Lunch for Authors and Referees (Wednesday 3rd July; Location TBD)

A lunch for early-career researchers looking to publish their research and to review papers. The Editor-in-Chief of MNRAS and MNRAS journal staff will explain how the review process works, how long it takes, and give advice on how to write a good paper, responding to referee reports and completing your first reviewer report. Q&A will be encouraged.

Europlanet Lunch: Exoplanetary Magnetism (Thursday 4th July; Location TBD)

The aim of this panel and networking session is to bring together expertise in solar magnetospheres and the exoplanet community to explore potential future collaborations. With the advent of new instrumentation (both space based and ground based) the routine detection of exoplanets using radio waves emitted when a stellar wind interacts with an intrinsic planetary magnetic field is becoming an increasing possibility.

To assist those planning to attend this session, and the conference in general, bursaries are available for selected conference attendees.

Careers Lunch (Thursday 4th July; Location TBD)

The majority of early career scientists in astrophysics eventually move into other fields in different sectors of the economy. But navigating those routes can be difficult, and universities and doctoral supervisors aren't always able to offer tailored advice.

The RAS wants to help! In this roundtable session, chaired by Deputy Executive Director Robert Massey, and aimed at PhD students and postdocs, four former PhD students will describe their roles in academia, industry, data science and finance, and offer practical guidance on how to get on to to the career ladder.