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The Astronomy and Astrophysics Department at the University of Valencia is the leading institution at the Comunitat Valenciana in astronomy and astrophysics, based on scientific output, personnel, and funded projects. In the past five years, the Department has led 35 projects, published 430+ papers, supervised 14 PhD theses, growing from 24 to 69 members (including 17 faculty, 8 tenure-track, 12 postdocs, and 32 PhD students). Its research includes cosmology, relativistic astrophysics, gravitational waves, radioastronomy, lensing, asteroseismology, and general relativity, integrating theory, modelling, data analysis, and observations. Department members belong in the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration and in the Event Horizon Telescope, and regularly use cutting-edge facilities such as GTC, HST, JWST, ALMA and VLBI. The Department is a central hub for astrophysics research in the region, contributing to training the next generation of scientists and advancing the field globally.

The Department was founded in January 1995 and is the leading research institution at the Comunitat Valenciana in the field of Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A), in terms of scientific production, number of researchers, and number of funded projects. Over the last five years, the Department has accomplished substantial research achievements, including 35 competitive research projects funded by national, regional (Generalitat Valenciana), and European agencies (one ERC Consolidator grant); over 430 peer-reviewed scientific publications in indexed journals; 6 contracts for excellence research personnel (including programs like Ramón y Cajal and CIDEGENT); 14 completed PhD theses and 17 ongoing doctoral projects, and more than 39 international collaborations with renowned institutions worldwide (each evidenced by at least five joint short-author-list publications since 2020). In the last five years the number of researchers in the Department has increased from 24 to 69. Currently, it hosts 17 permanent academic staff, 6 tenure-track researchers (with 2 more joining the Department in September 2025), 12 post-doctoral researchers, 32 PhD students and 2 technicians.

Within UV, the Department leads the field, concentrating all the professors and all Spanish R&D&I projects in the A&A area, 89% of all Q1-ranked publications in A&A, which collectively account for 91% of the total citations. Its research amounts to 1.8% of the publications and 6.5% of the citations of the UV, in all areas. At the regional level, the Department accounts for more than 67% of the total scientific output in the field of A&A across all research institutions (both universities and CSIC centers) within the Comunidad Valenciana. At the national level, in 2024 its research represented about 6% of all publications and citations in the field, while hosting only 3% of all permanent staff in A&A. This highlights the Department’s central role and scientific excellence in A&A research in the region, underscoring its leadership and impact at institutional, community and national levels.

The Department is structured around 9 main research groups. These groups are currently funded by 9 active projects from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), which define the Department’s research lines:

  • High Energy and Relativistic Astrophysics (HERA)
  • Computer Aided Modeling of Astrophysical Plasma (CAMAP)
  • Gravitational Waves and Numerical Relativity (GWNR)
  • Computational Cosmology (CC)
  • Radioastronomy (RA)
  • Black Hole Imaging and Relativistic Jets (BHIRJ).
  • Gravitational Lensing (GL)
  • Cosmic Surveys (CS)
  • Asteroseismology and Exoplanets (GRACE)