The Analysis Group on Climate Change, Meteorological Hazards and Inputs to the Mediterranean Hydrological System (CLIMAMET) carries out two types of activities: research and scientific-technical assistance to the public administration. 

Within the research activity, CLIMAMET works on three scientific lines: 

• Climate change analysis.
• The study of meteorological hazards.
• The examination of new inputs to the hydrological system.

The first of these focuses on the analysis of the spatio-temporal variability of air temperature and precipitation, as well as other climatic elements, with emphasis on the Valencian territory and the Mediterranean area. The research carried out by members of the group on the changes observed in air temperature in the Valencian Community by means of statistical downscaling techniques, or the climatic trends in precipitation according to its typology, stand out for their pioneering nature.

 The group has extensive experience in the monitoring of temperature and precipitation variables, using surface and satellite data, and their short- and medium-term forecasting, as well as the analysis and forecasting of extreme events, with cross-comparisons between statistical and mesoscale models, and observed and satellite data of great importance in meteorological hazard studies. This is done using advanced techniques in reconstruction-homogenisation of observed data, remote sensing, modelling and prediction.

The second line of research focuses on the analysis of the causes and dynamic processes that control meteorological hazard situations in the western Mediterranean basin, with the aim of helping to improve the prediction of three of them: torrential rainfall, extreme temperatures and forest fires. The group counts on tools (change mapping, impact indices and forecasts) to improve the management of the effects of climate change in the IMB and of extreme event warning systems, for the activation of social and environmental intervention protocols.

And the third scientific line is about analysing new inputs to the hydrological system, specifically the contribution of fog water and potential environmental uses. 

These lines of research find support in the scientific infrastructure available to CLIMAMET, specifically in the presence of a series of meteorological sensors supported, in part, by the Network of meteorological towers of the Centre for Environmental Studies of the Mediterranean Foundation (CEAM), and in the spatial data management tools available in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory of the Department of Geography. The generation of meteorological databases is essential for climate studies, as well as for feeding the RAMS (Regional Atmospheric Modelling System) meteorological model, adapted to Mediterranean conditions by the group's researchers and used to support weather hazard forecasting. 

CLIMAMET has extensive experience in providing scientific and technical assistance to the public administration. In fact, before the creation of the CLIMAMET group, its members, led by María José Estrela (Director of this group), made up the research team of the Joint Unit Climatology Laboratory CEAM_UV, which actively participated in assisting the public administration. Of particular note is the design and management since 2006 of the "Operational prediction of hazard levels due to heat waves in the Valencian Community" programme for the Regional Ministry of Health, as well as, since 2007, the "Data validation service of the ultraviolet B radiation measurement network and optimisation of UVI level prediction processes in the Valencian Community" for the Conselleria de Territori y Habitatge of the Valencian Government. Subsequently, as the CLIMAMET Research Group (GIUV2014-209), it has continued to provide assistance to the administration, specifically to the Conselleria de Medi Ambient, agua, Urbanisme i Habitatge with a "Study to obtain fog water for the provision of watering places for native fauna in the Muela de Cortes hunting reserve". In turn, the Group's director Dr. Estrela is a member of the Committee of Experts on Climate Change of the Valencian Government.

CLIMAMET is a multidisciplinary Research Group with the participation of researchers from different fields such as Physical Geography, Climatology, Atmospheric Physics, and Hydrology, with objectives around common lines of research. Participating as members of CLIMAMET are Dr. María José Estrela (Director), Dr. Javier Miró, Dr. Alejandro Pérez Cueva and Dr. Ana Camarasa, all of them from the Department of Geography of the UV; Dr. Vicente Caselles and Dr. Raquel Niclós from the Department of Earth Physics and Thermodynamics of the UV. The collaborating researchers are Dr. Igor Gómez Assistant Professor at the University of Alicante, Dr. José Antonio Valiente and Dr. Francisco Pastor Senior Researchers at the CEAM Foundation.

In a broad sense, this group will be aimed at obtaining a deeper insight into the physical processes taking place in astrophysical magnetized plasmas, which involve a broad range of length and time scales.

To study these scenarios we will employ different numerical codes as virtual tools that enable me to experiment on virtual laboratories (computers) with distinct initial and boundary conditions, in a fully analogous way to the experiments that can be done in an actual laboratory.

Among the kind of sources I am interested to consider, I outline the following: Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), extragalactic jets from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), magnetars and collapsing stellar cores.

A number of important questions are still open regarding the fundamental properties of these astrophysical sources. The complete description of the collimation and acceleration of astrophysical jets is still being elucidated. The composition, high-energy emission, and the mechanisms by which jets propagate from their formation sites to the locations where they are observed is a subject of active scientific debate. Predicting source dynamics and gravitational waveforms is important to understand hoped-for observations in the current generation of ground-based, gravitational-wave detectors, and essential to achieve design sensitivity in future space-based detectors. Additionally, there are analytical issues on the formalism in relativistic dynamics that are not completely resolved, particularly in the covariant extension of resistive magnetohydrodynamics.

All these problems are so complex that only a computational approach is feasible. I plan to study them by means of (Magneto-)Hydrodynamics (MHD) numerical simulations with a suitable coupling with the dynamics of populations of non-thermal emitting particles. Most of these astrophysical plasmas are relativistic (e.g., GRBs, AGN jets). Thus, they must be treated with a suitable Special or General Relativity approach. The virtual laboratory I plan to develop will therefore be fully equipped with the most modern algorithms to cope with Special Relativistic MHD (SRMHD) or General Relativistic MHD (GRMHD) fluids. Other scenarios can be appropriately described by a classical or Newtonian MHD approach; hence the virtual lab will also be prepared for that.

A principal focus of the project will be to assess the relevance of magnetic fields in the generation, collimation and ulterior propagation of relativistic jets from the GRB progenitors and from AGNs.

Research lines:

1. Magnetic field amplification in proto-neutron stars (PNS). Inferring the mechanism by which the magnetic field is amplified from seed values in extraordinarily dense plasma to dynamically relevant figures, and predicting which are the preferred field topologies as well as the possible effects of the field onto the dynamics of GRBs (e.g., the formation of jets) is a long standing issue, whose solution can be figured out by means of a combination of local and global (GR)MHD simulations. Since most supernova progenitors are expected to be slow rotators (Heger et al 2000) convection and dynamo effects in the PNS are, most probably, the main magnetic field amplification mechanism in these objects. However a subclass of rapidly rotating progenitors is expected to exist (Woosley & Heger 2006; Yoon et al. 2008) which would explain the observed correlation of some type Ic supernovae (SNe) and long GRBs. The most promising mechanism to account for the rapid growth of magnetic field in the collapse of a rapidly rotating stellar core, conducive to a PNS, is the Magneto-Rotational-Instability (MRI). The extremely small scales at which the fastest growing field modes develop, challenge any numerical approach, even direct (local) numerical simulations of small representative boxes of a PNSs. The disparity of time and length scales over which the field amplification takes place makes it necessary to perform also a global numerical modeling of the system, which includes the whole PNSs and its environment. I plan to develop new computational strategies to feedback the results of local numerical simulations on global ones. One of the ground-braking outcomes of this work shall be sub-grid models for global numerical simulations, which will be able to account properly for the growth of the magnetic field (because of MRI) from unresolved grid scales. Such models will allow us to bridge the existing gap between microscopic and macroscopic scales in this field. Furthermore, in this context we will pay special attention to non-ideal MHD effects, which can be decisive to set the levels at which the growth of the magnetic field saturates (Simon & Hawley 2009). Additional field amplification can be mediated by instabilities crucial for core-collapse SNe, viz. convection and the stationary accretion shock instability (SASI). While their appeal for standard core-collapse SNe lies in the fact that these instabilities do not rely on rapid rotation, they may also be important in intermediate steps of GRBs, e.g., between the formation of a hypermassive proto-neutron star (convection) and its subsequent collapse to a black hole, or in the accretion flow onto the black hole (SASI). I plan to study the corresponding growth of magnetic fields and of the dynamic backreaction onto the flow using models employing simplified microphysics (e.g., replacing detailed neutrino transport by cooling functions) as well as detailed radiation-MHD simulations.
2. GRMHD jet generation. We will try to understand the relevance of the magnetic field in the generation, collimation and ulterior propagation of a relativistic jet from the progenitor of a GRB and from AGNs. We will work under the assumption that the mechanisms of formation and collimation are similar in both astrophysical scenarios and, indeed, we will pursue the objective of finding similarities and universalities in relativistic flows. There is an obvious connection between this goal and objective 1, since progenitors of long GRBs are, most probably, collapsars (see, Woosley 1993; MacFadyen & Woosley 1999), whose central engine -a solar-mass BH girded by a geometrically thick accretion disk- is likely threaded by huge magnetic fields, which originate via MRI from the collapse of the core of the progenitor star. One of the deficiencies of the current numerical approaches is the artificial set up of the central engine and of the magnetic field strength and topology. Typically, a quasi-equilibrium torus pierced by poloidal field lines is placed orbiting around a rotating BH. Perturbations of the initial torus matter trigger the accretion that fuels bipolar outflows. Both the initial accretion-torus configuration and the field topology are set up ad-hoc. I plan to use the outcomes of the global simulations to be performed in point 1 as initial models for GRMHD simulations that, consistently, account for the collapse of the PNS to a BH and the generation of jets in collapsars.
3. Radiative transport and microphysics. Close to the central engine, the accretion disk and jet radiative physics are keys to understand the evolution of the jet and why different systems have different terminal velocity. Through annihilation of photons in AGNs, the radiative physics may illuminate the origin of jet composition by determining the electron-positron mass-loading of the jet, and so its Lorentz factor. For GRBs, the radiative annihilation of neutrinos and the effect of Fick diffusion (Levinson & Eichler 2003) may give an understanding of the Lorentz factor of the jet and the origin of baryon contamination. Furthermore, neutrino-driven winds may originate from the accretion disk. They may change the collimation, stability and baryon pollution of the ultrarelativistic GRB-jet, as well as being of extraordinary relevance to the synthesis of r-process nuclei, which may explain the observed abundances of such elements and yield a radioactivity signal accompanying short GRBs. Therefore, as applied to the field of progenitors of GRBs, a realistic equation of state, photodisintegration of nuclei, general relativistic neutrino transport (ray-tracing similar to Birkl et al. 2006 or two-moment transport as in Obergaulinger 2008), and neutrino cooling (similar to, e.g. Kohri et al. 2005) are missing in the state-of-the-art work in this field and will be implemented in the numerical experiments I am planning for this proposal. In case of AGN jets, simplified photon transport, and photon Comptonization may be included as new elements in our numerical models in order to obtain a more consistent picture. Finally, I plan to estimate the gravitational wave emission associated to the birth of relativistic jets using the tools developed by both my former group at MPA (Obergaulinger et al. 2006) and my current host (Cordero, et al., in preparation). The close relation of non-GRB SNe with collapsars will allow me to apply the methods outlined above also to these systems to study, e.g., the interplay of hydromagnetic instabilities and neutrino transport. Inclusion of many of the former elements is an interdisciplinary task that may involve the common work with computer scientists in order to design numerically efficient algorithms.
4. Radiative processes. The observed differences in the radiative properties of jets in AGNs and GRBs suggest that the environment likely plays a significant role in the emission at large distances from the central engine. Both blazars and GRBs exhibit non-thermal emission. But, emission of long duration GRBs becomes harder with increasing luminosity, while in blazars the opposite happens (Ghirlanda et al. 2004, 2005). Also, GRBs emit most of the energy in ?-rays and less than 10% to the lower frequency afterglow (Piran 2005), while blazars release only 10% in ?-rays, the rest being produced in the radio lobe (Ghisellini & Celotti 2002). On the other hand, a worthy byproduct of the comparison of synthetic spectra and light curves with actual observations can be the determination of the amount of thermal matter present in extragalactic jets. This fact constitutes a proxy to determine their composition (in particular of blazar jets). The radiative physics of jets in AGNs and GRBs at large distances from the source will be subject of a specific work following the approach developed in Mimica, Aloy & Müller (2007) and Mimica et al (2009).
5. Improving previous work. I plan to improve my previous results in two ways: (i) by increasing the number of dimensions in which the models are computed and (ii) by including dynamically important magnetic fields. In case of progenitors of GRBs, 2D axisymmetric models have already been computed. Future simulations will be three-dimensional in order to assess the stability of the generated outflows as well as to account for the proper mass entrainment in the jet. Furthermore, the addition of magnetic fields in either 2D or 3D will extend the range of applicability of the results of Aloy, Janka & Müller (2005) and Mizuno & Aloy (2009). Extending my previous work in the field of internal shocks in relativistic jets from one to two spatial dimensions is needed to account for the lateral expansion of the outflows. This is a key question, e.g., in the transition regime between the prompt GRB emission and the early afterglow. It is also important to have a reliable estimate of the efficiency of the model of internal shocks in converting kinetic into radiated energy. On the other hand, I plan to compute the evolution of ultra-relativistic, magnetized outflows in the GRB context, starting from the end of the acceleration phase, through the internal shocks phase (prompt emission) all the way to the end of the afterglow phase. If successful, even one-dimensional simulations would provide the first consistent prediction for the dependence of GRB dynamics, and both prompt and afterglow emission, on the magnetization of the flow, equation of state and, possibly, presence of non-ideal effects (magnetic dissipation). The relativistic Rayleigh-Taylor instability of a decelerating shell (Levinson 200), and its implications for GRBs will be addressed by means of multidimensional R(M)HD simulations. Together with Dr. Cerdá-Durán, I plan to extend the recent results of Cerdá-Duran et al. (2009) on quasi- periodic oscillations in the tail of giant flares of SGRs. The precise mechanism by which the oscillation spectrum of the magnetar interior modulates the emission in the magnetosphere will be studied by adding realistic magnetosphere models to the present simulations. The emission properties of the flares, including spectra and X-ray maps, can be computed using similar techniques as in points 3 and 4.
6. Beyond ideal MHD. Although an ideal RMHD modeling of the sites where relativistic jets are produced has already proven to be very fruitful, non-ideal effects (particularly, viscosity and resistivity) are important (1) when the flow develops current sheets; (2) where pair creation contributes a non-negligible amount of rest-mass, internal energy, or momentum density; and (3) if the rest-mass flux due to ambipolar and Fick diffusion is not negligible. I plan to develop new algorithms to account for most of these effects. I will address my first efforts to develop a resistive RMHD code following the lines shown by Komissarov (2007). Scattered in the previous objectives, I have sketched a number of astrophysical scenarios where non-ideal effects might be potentially important. To these sources, one may also add solar flares, where non-ideal MHD, even beyond Ohmic resistivity, could be extremely exciting. Let me stress that, even at the theoretical level, the development of a fully covariant theory for the reconnection of magnetic field is, in its own right, a ground-breaking challenge. Finally, I point out that non-ideal effects are also potentially important in some of the MHD applications we are planning (see point 1). Capabities of the group: Our group develops a basic, non-oriented research in the field of Relativistic Plasma Astrophysics. Most of our activities are relatied with the numerical modeling of (magnetized) fluids. Thus, beyond our obvious Astrophysical capabilities, we have exepertise in High-Performance Computing.

The objectives of the Astroparticle Physics Experimental Group are directly related to the ANTARES and KM3NeT neutrino telescopes. Neutrino astronomy offers a new way of looking at the Universe with remarkable advantages over other messengers. Gamma rays interact with radiation and matter on their way from the astrophysical sources that produce them. Cosmic rays are also absorbed and, being charged particles, are deflected by galactic and extra-galactic magnetic fields. Neutrinos, on the other hand, travel virtually unchanged from their origin to us because they are neutral and interact weakly. 

One of the fundamental goals of neutrino astronomy is to identify the sources of the high-energy cosmic rays that we have been observing for decades without having yet elucidated their origin. Another goal is the detection of dark matter, which makes up 85% of the matter in the Universe and of which one of the few things we know is that it is not made of Standard Model particles. Finally, another goal is to measure the mass hierarchy of neutrinos, one of the remaining unresolved questions about neutrinos. ANTARES is a neutrino telescope located at a depth of 2500 metres in the Mediterranean Sea, near the French coast. It consists of 900 photomultipliers (PMTs) that detect Cherenkov light induced by the interaction of high-energy neutrinos in the vicinity of the detector. It has been taking data since 2008 in its full configuration. The future KM3NeT detector will have two configurations The larger (one cubic kilometre) ARCA configuration will focus on the search for astrophysical sources of neutrinos. The denser ORCA configuration (1.8 Mton) has as its main objectives to measure the mass hierarchy of neutrinos and to elucidate the nature of dark matter. 

In addition to participating in the analyses of neutrino astronomy, dark matter and neutrino properties, the Astroparticle Experiment Group is involved in the construction of the KM3NeT time calibration system and in the development of the control cards for the data acquisition system.

The standard cosmological model needs to be tested against cosmological observations to check its validity and to determine the values of its parameters. This project makes use of different cosmological observations in which the members of the research team are involved for this purpose. 

On the one hand, we are working on large mappings of galaxies and quasars that provide precise measurements of the redshift in large volumes of the Universe. These catalogues are both photometric (J-PAS) and spectroscopic (DESI). These are major international projects, which will measure very precisely the characteristics of baryonic acoustic oscillations, a fundamental tool for understanding the nature of dark energy, a basic component of the standard cosmological model. 

On the other hand, we use the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, through observations from different telescopes (GTC, LBT), to study also the properties of dark energy through time delays of multiple images of gravitationally lensed quasars. 

In addition, and in a more local setting, our team will continue to work on the study and characterisation of the populations of massive stars in the Galaxy. This will continue with the exploitation of scientific data from the IPHAS photometric mapping, and with the development and exploitation of the VPHAS+ southern hemisphere analogue mapping. 

Finally, we will carry out microlensing studies on nearby stars, with the aim of detecting Earth-type exoplanets, determining their abundance and characterising the percentage of those located in the region known as the habitability zone.

The main focus of the research group is on the confrontation of the predictions of the Standard Model with experimental data, paying special attention to the results of the LHC and the latest analyses of the Tevatron and B meson factories, as well as to the neutrino experiments and those relevant to the dark matter and dark energy aspects of the Universe.

The comparison of such experimental data with the Standard Model, as well as with its possible feasible extensions, is aimed at providing the necessary information to answer current questions in fundamental physics such as:

• Why do fermions appear replicated in three (and only three?) families with virtually identical properties?
• What is the origin of the hierarchy of masses and mixtures observed in the fermionic families, both in the quark and lepton sectors?
• Is there a fundamental reason for the observed left-right asymmetry in weak interactions?
• What dynamics are responsible for the CP symmetry violation?
• In this context, given the current precision and the amount of available experimental data provided by the above experiments, it is important from a theoretical point of view to develop the necessary techniques to properly analyse the experimental data. To this end, a precise and thorough study of the phenomenology of the proposed theoretical models, both of the Standard Model and its extensions, is essential. A fundamental aspect, towards which the project is oriented, is an adequate selection of those observables that allow a better identification of the effects sought. The final comparison between predictions and existing experimental data can corroborate or discard the proposed theoretical models. In this context, the topics under investigation by the group fall under the following headings: 

1. Flavour dynamics and CP violation: study of the fermion mixing matrix (CKM), proposal of time-reversal observables. Comparison of theoretical predictions with experimental results. 
2. Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics: study of the neutrino mass and mixing hierarchy. Implications for leptogenesis and dark matter. 
3. QCD and Hadronic Physics: non-perturbative study of QCD propagators at low energies, calculation of heavy meson form factors and light quark masses by means of sum rules in QCD. 
4. Gauge Field Theories, Higgs Boson and Form Factors: study of the magnetic dipole moment and the magnetic form factor of the tau lepton. 
5. Supersymmetry and beyond the Standard Model: study of the relationship between particle physics and cosmology by means of supersymmetric theoretical models involving the existence of new particles. Relationship of supersymmetric models and dark matter.

The team is currently composed of 9 University Professors: G. Barenboim, J. Bernabéu, J. Bordes, F. Botella, J. Papavassiliou, J. Peñarrocha, M. A. Sanchis-Lozano, J. Vidal and O. Vives, research fellows, contract and postdocs attached to the Department of Theoretical Physics (UV) and IFIC (UV-CSIC).

Astrophysical objects like planets, stars, galaxies and even larger structures bend the light rays coming from distant sources to an observer on Earth. This phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, has become an essential tool for probing astrophysical problems from cosmology to exoplanets. Observationally it leads to changes in the brightness, shapes and even the number of images we observe. Since the bending of the light rays increases with the mass of the lens, gravitational lenses are a unique means of mapping and analyzing the distribution of mass in a Universe in which virtually all matter is still of unknown nature. From the observational discovery of the first lensing phenomenon in 1979, gravitational lensing has evolved from a curiosity into an important probe of our Universe on all scales.

The project is developed in coordination with the lensing group of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias; we combine our experience in theory and observations of gravitational lenses to study: the cosmological parameters from time delay measurements of gravitational lensed quasars, the dark matter properties in lens galaxies, the unresolved structure of lensed quasar, or to search new extra-solar planets through gravitational microlensing of stars in our Galaxy, etc. Since January of 2005 the Lensing Group at the Department of Astronomy in the University of Valencia has been always funded by the Spanish government ("Plan Nacional of I+D+i in Astronomy and Astrophysics) and has been complemented by support from other institutions such us the MARIE CURIE Research Training Network "Astrophysics Network for Galaxy Lensing Studies (ANGLES)" from the European Commission, or the Generalitat Valenciana.

The LISITT group was set up in 1989 with the aim of filling the existing gap in Spain in the area of telematics applications in the field of traffic and transport. Its initial activities were focused on the execution of international research and development projects within the European ESPRIT and DRIVE programmes of the 2nd Framework Programme of the European Union. 

Since its origins, LISITT has specialised in the study and development of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), covering technological, organisational and strategic aspects. LISITT has been carrying out projects for more than 20 years for national traffic and transport administrations, including the Directorate General of Traffic, the Ministry of Public Works and its regional counterparts in the Basque and Catalan Governments. LISITT is currently a multidisciplinary group (Physics, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, Mathematics, Geography) that brings together more than 60 professionals, all of them university graduates, including civil servants, contracted teachers and its own research staff, and has established itself as a reference group in consultancy on telematics applied to transport, in the development of ITS systems, and strategic consultancy on management issues and the development of traffic systems. 

The work carried out since its origins has consolidated LISITT as a Spanish reference group in consultancy on telematics applied to transport, in the development of ITS systems, and strategic consultancy on management, development and maintenance of traffic systems for administrations, as reflected by the fact that LISITT has been participating for more than 10 years as expert advisors representing the Directorate-General for Traffic in different national and international standardisation committees and in European working groups on ITS systems, including the World Committee for Standardisation in ITS systems ISO/TC204, the European Committee for Standardisation of ITS systems CEN/TC278 and the Spanish Committee for Telematics applied to transport and road traffic AEN/CTN 159. The role played by LISITT in the creation, assistance and monitoring of the Euro-regional SERTI project (1995 - 2006), the Euro-regional ARTS project (1997 - 2006) and the European EasyWay project (2007-2013) should also be highlighted. 

Apart from these consultancy activities in the standardisation groups in the field of ITS systems, LISITT's most important projects are grouped around the following topics:

• Consultancy to traffic administrations on coordination and organisation of international traffic control and management projects.
• Technical assistance to public administrations in traffic management and information systems.
• Study, development and maintenance of traffic information systems for public traffic administrations.
• Coordination and execution of R&D&I projects, both from the European Union and national calls for proposals.
• Analysis, design, construction and development of information systems for private companies.
• Computer security, data protection and privacy.

This group has a recognised prestige for the numerous quality works it has carried out in inland aquatic ecosystems and for the new researchers that have been trained. The following are some of the basic and applied research topics carried out by this group.

Basic research in:

1. Specific richness and dynamics of populations and communities of aquatic organisms: bacteria, phytoplankton, periphyton, zooplankton, acoto- and zoo-benthos and fish, and their controlling factors.
2. Dynamics and functioning of aquatic ecosystems: biogeochemical cycles, productivity, microbial processes.
3. Study of aquatic food webs, their structure, key species and vulnerability to global change.
4. Community coupling: mechanisms and rules.
5. Biogeochemistry of carbon in aquatic ecosystems, GHGs and climate change.
6. Molecular ecology.
7. Paleolimnology and global change.
8. Polar zone limnology.
9. Pancrustacean genomics.
10. Ecotoxicology.
11. Remote-sensing.

Applied research in:

1. Aquatic pollution and eutrophication processes.
2. Physico-chemical and microbiological water quality.
3. Characterisation of aquatic ecosystems.
4. Monitoring and assessment of the environmental and conservation status of aquactic ecosystems.
5. Management and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.
6. Assessment of the response of aquatic ecosystems to global changes, including chemical pollution.
7. Ecosystem management applied to climate change mitigation.
8. Water purification and naturalisation in artificial wetlands.
9. Bioremediation.
10. Alien invasive species in inland waters.
11. Remote-sensing as a tool for the study of environmental quality and ecological status of inland waters.

One of the main themes of our project is the analytical and numerical study of the so-called Relativistic Positioning Systems (RPS). A collaborator of our group (B. Coll) proposed this research line a decade ago. We will study in depth topics such as bifurcation and minimisation of positioning errors, and in the longer term gravimetry. We will also try to study – in its relativistic aspects–  satellite navigation based on pulsar observation. The European Space Agency has repeatedly shown its interest in relativistic positioning by setting up working groups and organising conferences.

We are also conducting the following studies within the framework of the theory of General Relativity (GR): (1) intrinsic characterisation of some physically significant solutions of Einstein’s equations (spherically symmetric solutions, cosmological models, etc.) and of the gravitational radiation states (Bel-Robinson tensor), and (2) study of the concepts of total intrinsic linear 4-momentum and angular 4-momentum of the universe, and application to the characterisation of universes that could be created by quantum vacuum fluctuations.

In addition, part of our team is working on the study of non-linear anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background using numerical simulations. Following this line, we intend to study the secondary Rees-Sciama, Sunyaev-Zel´dovich and lensing anisotropies and, above all, we are interested in the non-linear superposition of these effects to compare it with recent observational data obtained within the framework of the SPT (South Pole Telescope) and ACT (Atacama Cosmology Telescope) projects at very small angular scales. This topic requires complicated simulations that are being carried out in collaboration with the main researcher (H.M.P Couchman) and other members (R. Thacker) of the International Hydra Consortium for the development of numerical simulations of structure formation. In-house equipment and equipment from the UV Computing Centre are being used.

Finally, the nature of dark energy is a current topic of debate in which we want to participate by trying to study different alternatives to vacuum energy or of a certain dynamical scalar field (quintessence). Among others, we intend to analyse possible explanations based on: (a) the energy associated with certain vector fields (vector-tensor theories), (b) inhomogeneous universes within the framework of GR, and (c) negative pressure associated with the gravitational interaction between certain structures populating the universe.

We have always considered that theoretical developments and simulations complement each other when it comes to explaining observations and that, therefore, when working on gravitation, direct collaboration between theoretical researchers with a solid geometrical background and those with extensive experience in developing simulations is highly desirable. The composition of our group guarantees this collaboration, which has already yielded good results and which we are confident will continue to do so. Not all our work will be carried out within the framework of General Relativity, since some cosmological observations, such as anomalies in the angular spectrum of the microwave background and the luminosity-redshift relation of type Ia supernovae, suggest the existence of new fields in the framework of certain generalisations of Einstein's theory of gravitation (scalar-tensor, vector-tensor, tensor-tensor theories, etc.). These alternative theories are currently being seriously investigated and we join this trend with moderation. We also join the opposite trend, which tries to explain the so-called dark sector through application models of Einstein's theory, without additional fields.

Until 2015, we were funded by the FIS2012-33582 project of MINECO.