The Opticon RadioNet Pilot will build the capacities of astronomers and engineers with the knowledge and skills required to take full advantage of astronomical infrastructures. This is essential because the specialist knowledge involved in data acquisition and analysis from different astronomical observations require specialised, tailored training of the user base. This will be done by offering:

• common training schools, where synergies between optical and radio astronomical data analyses can be exploited, encouraging mobility, networking and knowledge transfer between different communities;
• a set of specialised schools and workshops led by experts, where the next generation of users will be trained in the basics and finer points of instruments, data acquisition and analysis from both optical and radio observatories.

Technical schools and workshops in appropriate institutes and observatories will be organised to ameliorate the lack of systematic training in observational astrophysics in most universities, and the progressive disappearance of “training at the telescope”.