EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR HOSTING MARIE S. CURIE FELLOWS IN SPANISH INSTITUTIONS (CALL MSCA IF 2015)

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1 1. Interested institution: Universidad Complutense de Madrid Departamento de Astrofísica y Ciencias de la Atmósfera Grupo UCM de Astrofísica Instrumental y extragaláctica (GUAIX) Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 2. Brief Description of the Institution 1. Introduction Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) is one of the largest Universities in Spain and all around Europe. With a tradition beyond 5 centuries, UCM has become a very important institution in terms of higher education and research activities. UCM is home of research groups which are in the cutting edge of research in many areas. UCM technological scientific infrastructure (with an annual budget almost reaching 600M ), together with the quality of its researchers (more than 6000), has established some of its laboratories among the best all around Europe. 2. Research and Education The UCM is a broad-scoped university in which almost every field of knowledge is envisaged. From the 2012 research annual report (the last consolidated figures), there has been a total income of almost 40M for research activities: 6% of this income has been obtained through EU funded programmes and 21% through R&D service contracts with the private sector. The research at UCM is developed through its 21 faculties, 5 university schools, 9 associated centres, 40 university research institutes, 8 schools for professional specialization, 4 university hospitals, and 17 research assistance centres. Due to its broad-scoped nature UCM is able to offer 170 official degrees of which 65 correspond to bachelor degrees and 105 to master degrees. For these degrees UCM counts on more than students distributed among the faculties, university schools and associated centres. Both students and researchers benefit from a vast collection of volumes in the UCM library (more than 2,7 million of volumes), as well periodic publications exceeding The historic collection of at the UCM s library reaches volumes and there are substantial historic and artistic funds all over the 12 museums and the 11 art, entomological, palaeontological, etc. collections. More detailed information on R&D and Higher Education activities of the UCM can be found on and

2 3. UCM: Campus of International Excellence UCM is located in the Campus de Moncloa at Ciudad Universitaria of Madrid. This location is a large space devoted to Science and Higher Education. With over 10,000 researchers and 10% of the national scientific production of Spain the Campus de Moncloa, which houses two universities and several research centres is a unique environment, fostering synergies in higher education, research, innovation and social and cultural projection. This uniqueness has favoured the awarding of the Campus of International Excellence label to the institutions joining this Campus de Moncloa. The UCM through the Campus of International Excellence is committed to specialization in five thematic clusters to achieve scientific and teaching excellence: Global Change and New Energies, Materials for the Future, Agri-Food Industry and Health, Innovative Medicine and Heritage. The distinctive strengths of each cluster will converge to create unique configurations marked by their innovative and interdisciplinary character, highly competitive at the European level, and producing significant progress in knowledge transfer. More information on the Moncloa Campus of Excellence can be found in 4. UCM: support to researchers in mobility programmes The UCM provides advice to foreign researchers moving to the institution to develop R&D projects on how to process residence permits, visas or other related documents through the personnel department of its Fundación General ( On the other hand, by means of the Oficina de Alojamiento and the Casa del Estudiante (Centro Internacional de Visitantes y Acogida, CIVA), the UCM provides to the visiting researchers the possibility to get accommodation though different options like residences or apartments. Regarding the aspects related to the management of international Fellowships and Grants, the UCM, through the European Office for R&D ( provides advice and support throughout the preparation process of the Contracts and Agreements and the following management of the projects. A smooth financial management of the grants will be guaranteed by the Economic Management Unit of the FGUCM which deals at the time of submitting this EOI with more than 100 active international grants. 3. Please tick the areas of research (as established in Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions) Chemistry (CHE) Environmental Sciences and Geology (ENV) Social Sciences and Humanities (SOC) Life Sciences (LIF) Economic Sciences (ECO) Mathematics (MAT) Information Science and Engineering (ENG) X Physics (PHY)

3 4. Research / Project Description Main lines of research of the GUAIX group: Nearby disk and elliptical galaxies Distant Star-forming galaxies Astronomical instrumentation for large telescopes Light pollution Nearby disk galaxies One of the research areas of the GUAIX group is the study of the properties and evolution of disk galaxies. We approach this problem from a multi-wavelength perspective taking advantage of state-of-the-art UV (from GALEX) through IR (from Spitzer & Herschel) imaging data and integral field spectroscopy (IFS). Our group has been a major contributor in the design and exploitation of the CALIFA project, a legacy IFS project that has recently completed the observation of ~600 nearby galaxies. We are also involved in the S4G project and are one of the nodes of the EU-funded DAGAL ("Detailed Anatomy of Galaxies") ITN. In addition to these large programs, we also participate in several observing programs at GTC, Subaru and CFHT for the characterization of the IMF and chemical abundances of extended UV (XUV) disks and at the WHT for the identification and modeling of the dynamics of winds in apparently quiescent galaxy nuclei. Real and virtual early-type galaxies Our group, together with research teams at the University of Valencia and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, is involved in the project "Real and Virtual Early-type Galaxies: How galaxies assemble through cosmic time". Its fundamental objective is to keep on deepening in the understanding of the formation and evolution of the structures that populate the Universe, namely, galaxies and galaxy clusters, from different, but complementary, fields of astronomy. The central idea is to combine state-of-the-art cosmological simulations with the latest generation of stellar populations synthesis models. These will be compared directly with the highest quality observational data. This working framework is allowing us to focus on the study of the early type galaxies (representing around 70% of the luminous matter in the observable Universe) and all the opened questions related with their formation and evolution. Special attention is devoted to understand the morphological transformations experimented by the massive galaxies. In the context of this project the group at UCM is in particular working on: improving the stellar libraries needed to perform state-of-the-art population synthesis, studying the stellar populations in present-day ellipticals, analyzing the impact of secular evolution and the presence of bars in the formation of the bulges of spiral galaxies, and investigating the role of dwarf elliptical galaxies as building blocks of more massive galaxies in rich clusters.

4 Distant Star-Forming galaxies Our group has a large expertise in the properties and evolution of star-forming galaxies at different epochs of the universe. Starting in the 90 s with the UCM survey of local star-forming galaxies, we have carried out several projects related with the properties of the population of distant star-forming galaxies at different redshifts. We are currently involved in the study of the properties of low-mass star-forming galaxies, and in the following years this project will benefit of the scientific exploitation of a significant number of observing nights of the guaranteed time of the EMIR multi-object spectrograph in the near-ir for GTC. The project also includes deep multi-object spectroscopy with MOS spectrographs such as VLT/VIMOS and GTC/MEGARA. The team is working to develop advanced techniques to infer the Star Formation History of these distant galaxies. Finally, the team is also working on the very highredshift populations of star-forming galaxies (z > 5). Astronomical instrumentation for large telescopes The UCM Group of Extragalactic Astrophysics and Astronomical Instrumentation (GUAIX) is strongly involved in the development of instruments for large telescopes, especially on those initiatives that are aimed at the study of the evolution of external galaxies, both nearby and in the distant Universe (see The group participates in different instrumental initiatives considered of high priority by the Spanish and European funding agencies: our group leads the design and construction of the MEGARA instrument for the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and participates in the MOSAIC instrument for the ESO E-ELT and the EMIR, FRIDA and MIRADAS infrared spectrographs for GTC. In the last 5 years our group has now become one of the leading Spanish groups in the development of astronomical instrumentation. We lead the construction of MEGARA, an Integral-Field and Multi-Object spectrograph working at intermediate-to-high spectral resolutions that will be installed at GTC at the end of The GUAIX group, where the PI (A. Gil de Paz) is located, is responsible for the scientific coordination, project management, design and construction of the fiber bundles, mechanical design, control hardware and part of the control software, including the instrument Data Reduction Pipeline (DRP). We also participate in the MOSAIC instrument for the ESO E-ELT and in the development of the DRPs for the EMIR (co-i J. Gallego), FRIDA (co-i N. Cardiel) and MIRADAS (co-i J. Gallego) infrared spectrographs for GTC. Light Pollution Research Recently, our group is producing relevant results on the study of the effects of light pollution from the analysis of satellite images and photographs taken from the International Space Station (ISS). This research complements those conducted from land, analyzing the brightness of the night sky, and they allow us to compare to models of impact of light pollution in the brightness of the sky and even determine, with measurements from space, exterior lighting energy consumption, mainly in public and ornamental lighting, and their evolution. Light pollution alters the natural alternation between day and night, and so its research is not only of astronomical and economic interest (energy) but also encompasses other disciplines such as biology and medicine. The Spanish Light Pollution Research Network (REECL; AYA E) has been founded from the need of combining the efforts of the few Spanish

5 research groups to study it from a multidisciplinary perspective. The UCM has led its creation (IP Zamorano) and coordinates its work ( Our group is the REECL expert in satellite image analysis and sky brightness measurements. The applicant will have access to all observing facilities available to the group, including all the La Palma, Calar Alto and ESO observatory telescopes. Besides, for any instrumentation activity the applicant can make use of the new Laboratory for Advanced Scientific Instrumentation (UCM-LICA), a first-class infrastructure funded by the CEI-Moncloa Excellence Program, MINECO, CDTI and AstroMadrid network. UCM-LICA is integrated into the UCM Research Assistance Center (CAI) network. The UCM-LICA ( has resources for the full characterization of large-format CCD detectors and other optical elements, as well as for the assembly and testing of the optical fibers and fiber-based spectrographs. 5. Who can apply? At the deadline for the submission of proposals (10/09/2015), researchers (*): shall be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience. must not have resided or carried out their main activities in the country of Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the abovementioned deadline. 6. Contact person Armando Gil de Paz agil@ucm.es Phone: (Nearby disk galaxies & optical instrumentation) Jesús Gallego Maestro j.gallego@fis.ucm.es Phone: (Distant galaxies and Infrared instrumentation) Javier Gorgas jgorgas@ucm.es Phone: (Nearby elliptical galaxies) Jaime Zamorano Calvo jzamorano@ucm.es Phone: (Light pollution) África Castillo Morales acasmor@ucm.es Phone: (Integral-field spectroscopy and Instrumentation Control H/W & S/W) Nicolás Cardiel López cardiel@ucm.es - Phone: (Astronomical data processing software)

6 7. Applications: documents to be submitted and deadlines Interested applicants should submit to the Contact Person that best matches his/her research interests the following documents before the deadline: (1) a cover letter (that should also list names of the two referees), (2) a recent Curriculum Vitae, (3) a research statement and (4) two reference letters. The reference letters should be sent directly by the referees to the department secretary at sec063@ucm.es specifying in the the name of the applicant and that the letter is for her/his "GUAIX group MC fellowship" application. The deadline for submitting this documentation is June 19 th 2015 (later submissions might also be considered). This should give enough time to potentially interested applicants prior to the Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowships specific deadline. Please note that: Deadline of the next call for proposals for Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowships is September, 10 th Oficina Europea is only responsible for the display of the expressions of interests received by the institutions; further contact and information requests will take place directly between the host institutions and the interested researchers. (*) Further details on the Call and additional eligibility criteria can be found at the Participants Portal