Stars form from the collapse of dense clouds, and as the collapsing gas and dust is rotating, a disk forms
around the star. Such disks are the birth places of planets and were referred to as ‘protoplanetary disks’.
However, the properties of disks during the onset of planet formation have been, and remain, a matter of
vigorous debate. We now know that disks have lifetimes of at most a few Myr rather than >10 Myr as previously
believed and observed ring structures strongly hint at an early onset of planet formation while the disk is still
embedded in its birth environment and fed by infall of gas and dust. Therefore, we are currently witnessing a
paradigm shift where even young disks are no longer considered as ‘protoplanetary’, but ‘planet-forming’
instead. While there is agreement today that external effects play a major role in the planet formation process,
relatively little work has been done so far in considering the protostellar environment.
We therefore propose a comprehensive 4-week program aimed at advancing our understanding of planet
formation in diverse stellar environments. This program addresses four distinct topics, each explored over a
week: "Photoevaporation and (cosmic-ray) ionization in regions of massive stars," "Disks in multiple stellar
systems," "Streamers: Infall from the cloud onto the disk at various stages of disk evolution," and "Planet
formation via core or pebble accretion in various environments." Our program brings together experts in
observational astronomy and computational astrophysics to delve into the critical aspects of planet formation.