This page lists funded projects (national funding, European funding, and cooperation projects) (co-)led by Group members, as well as missions/instruments in which we are strongly involved. Listed funded projects have a closing date no earlier than 1 Jan 2021 (for older projects, please follow this link).
ANDES@ELT
ANDES (ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph) is the planned high-resolution (R ~ 100,000) spectrograph for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) operating at visible
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SPIRou@CFHT
SPIRou (SPectropolarimètre InfraROUge) is a near-infrared spectropolarimeter and high-precision velocimeter for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). It is a near-infrared fiber-fed, double-pass cross-dispersed spectrograph, based
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PLATO
PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is an M3 ESA mission expected to launch in 2026. It is designed to find and
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Shedding light on planetary system evolution and Galactic assembly with ultra-precise space-based photometry
Advances in stellar interiors physics and evolution have been made possible by asteroseismology, the study of stars by the observation of their natural,
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Solving long-standing challenges in stellar physics with ultra-precise space-based photometry
Stars are essential to our understanding of the universe. Accurate characterisation of their properties requires that we have access to precise data and
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Probing Earth siblings throughout the Milky Way
Are there other Earths in the Galaxy? What do they look like? Even though we have never been closer to answering these important
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Space Debris Laboratory of the University of Coimbra (SpaDeLab)
SpaDeLab — Space Debris Laboratory of the University of Coimbra is an interdisciplinary project for the study of space debris, involving the Institute
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Unravelling the mystery of substellar object formation
There are at least 100 billion brown dwarfs and rogue planets in our galaxy. Several theories related to processes of their formation have
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Stellar rotation and magnetism in the era of ultra-precise space-based photometry
Stellar brightness variations result from the contribution of different stellar phenomena at different timescales. For solar-type stars, at long timescales the brightness variations
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Precise characterization of exoplanets with Cheops
Cheops is the first ESA mission dedicated to the characterization of known transiting exoplanets by means of ultra-high-precision photometry of bright stars. Data
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Past projects
Moving boundaries (PoleMotion)
During the last decades, there has been a rapid secular drift of the northern magnetic dip pole. This project will conduct an investigation
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Space Weather Modeling: A Coupled Ionosphere-Thermosphere Physics-Based Approach
This project aims to develop an open-source physics-based model of the ionosphere-thermosphere system in order to enable real-time forecasting of neutral and charged
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AM Radio Signal Datalogger (AMANDA)
(Portuguese only) Com o aumento da dependência da nossa sociedade na tecnologia baseada no espaço, ações que tornem esta infraestrutura mais resiliente são
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Using Ap stars as LABoratories for probing chemical transport mechanisms, with ultra-precise space-based photometry (ApLAB)
Over the last decades, asteroseismology has blossomed thanks to the ultra-precise, space-based photometric time series acquired by satellites such as CoRoT (France/ESA; 2006-2012),
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Cool Stars in the near-Infrared (CSI)
This project takes advantage of our privileged access to the Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) data from the NIRPS (Near InfraRed Planet Searcher) spectrograph
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Star-exoplanet compositional link: Towards realistic characterisation of terrestrial planets (EXO-TERRA)
Over the last decade, noticeable advances were made in the modelling of the internal properties of terrestrial planets. It is, for instance, known
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SSA P3-SWE-XXXVII SWE Products for Southern Europe – Phase 1 (PROSE)
This project will focus on enhancing and maturing space weather assets in Southern Europe, building on the results of the preceding SSA studies
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Exploring the red side of cool stars with exoplanets
The determination of accurate and precise stellar parameters and chemical abundances of M dwarfs is of prime importance to the study of Galactic
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Portuguese Regional Ionosphere ModEl (PRIME)
This project aims at developing a prototype for an empirical model to forecast total electron content (TEC) variations across Portugal in response to
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Space Weather Awareness Training Network (SWATNet)
SWATNet is an H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN). The project brings together nine beneficiaries (including the University of Coimbra)
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A synergetic approach to the study of the Milky Way, its stars and planets using ultra-precise, space-based photometry
New insights on stellar interiors physics and evolution are being made possible by asteroseismology, the study of stars by means of their natural
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Shedding a new light on outstanding problems in stellar physics with ultra-precise space-based photometry
The last decade has witnessed a dramatic advance in stellar physics research driven by exquisite space-based seismic data now available for thousands of
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Revealing the Milky Way with Gaia (MW-GAIA)
MW-GAIA will provide European leadership in understanding the Galaxy, its stars and planets, enhance the potential of the community in its scientific exploitation
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Breaking through outstanding problems in stellar evolution with ultra-precise space-based photometry (BreakStarS)
The last decade has witnessed a dramatic change in stellar astrophysics research as a result of the launch of space missions — such
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Characterizing the smallest planet hosts
The determination of accurate and precise stellar parameters and chemical abundances of M dwarfs is of prime importance to the study of Galactic
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Zoom-In ON hIgh-mass Star forMation
The theory of high-mass star formation predicts specific features, namely, the formation of near-equal binary systems, radiative Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, and bloated photospheres. The
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