The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is an Observatory for ground-based very high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. Building on the technology of current generation ground-based gammaray detectors, CTA will be ten times more sensitive and have unprecedented accuracy in its detection of high-energy gamma rays with more than 100 telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres. CTA will provide the first complete and detailed view of the Universe in this part of the radiation spectrum and will contribute towards a better understanding of astrophysical and cosmological processes, such as the origin of cosmic rays and their role in the Universe, the nature and variety of particle acceleration around black holes and the ultimate composition of matter and physics beyond the Standard Model.

Entered in the ESFRI Roadmap 2008, CTA Observatory (CTAO) was founded to manage the construction and operation of the instrument. The current interim legal entity, the CTAO gGmbH with shareholders from 11 countries plus ESO, is charged with preparing the design and the implementation of the Observatory and will give way to the CTAO European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). With two host sites in the southern and northern hemispheres – on the European Southern Observatory (ESO) at Paranal grounds in Chile and at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in Spain – it will extend the study of the astrophysical origin of gamma-rays at energies of a few tens of GeV and above, and investigate cosmic non-thermal processes.