Caixa foundation grants 35 fellowships for early-stage researchers of any nationality to pursue their PhD studies in the best Spanish and Portuguese research centres and units with excellence distinction. This frame is addressed exclusively to PhD research projects on STEM disciplines: life sciences and health, experimental sciences, physics, chemistry and mathematics. 

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA), is one of the largest centers of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) with ~ 200 members. Its mission is to deepen the knowledge of the Cosmos doing research in Astrophysics and avant-garde Space Science, promoting technological development through the construction of new instrumentation and disseminating our research among the scientific community and the general public. In 2018, IAA obtained the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa distinction”. The Institute is offering nine different projects:

• Astrophysics of jetted AGNs with MAGIC and CTA-LST, and implications for cosmology
• Computer science and small objects in our solar system
• Exploring the outskirts of the Solar System
• Fine tuning and usage of a global network of robotic telescopes for studying impact flashes on the moon and their biological implications for advanced control systems and habitability on the moon
• Imaging supermassive black holes with the Event Horizon Telescope
• Machine learning approach to the inverse light scattering problem by major airborne aerosol particles in the earth atmosphere: volcanic ash, desert dust and pollen
• Radiative transfer by non-spherical particles: application to protoplanetary disks and planetary atmospheres
• Towards giant optical telescopes through innovate ideas and technology
• Unveiling exoplanets atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope

Submission of applications: https://candidate.lacaixafellowships.org/login