The purpose of this MoU is for the Parties to explore the design, development, construction, deployment and operation of ELFS, and to define the roles of each of the Parties in this Programme. The implementation of any works resulting from the discussions under this MoU shall be separately negotiated and determined by all the Parties in formal legal agreements, which will include teaching, public engagement, research and development activities, intellectual property rights management and information exchange.

The intention is that ELFS shall consist of:
- In the Canary Islands: the northern ELFS observatory, including a telescope, its instrumentation and all scientific and technical infrastructures and supporting facilities that are necessary to operate and maintain the telescope and its instrumentation,
- In the southern hemisphere (location to be defined): the southern ELFS observatory, including a telescope, its instrumentation and all scientific and technical infrastructures and supporting facilities that are necessary to operate and maintain the telescope and its instrumentation,
- in locations to be defined: the data archive centre(s), including all facilities to collect, support analysis of, curate and archive all data resulting from both observatories.