The Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) grants the IAA-CSIC funding for four outreach projects

The Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, under the Ministry of Science and Innovation, has awarded four of the five projects requested by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) in its latest call for grants for scientific culture. The four projects, AstroSound, Gravity Bazaar, Espacio3 and Horizons of Light - Reboot, total 122,000 euros obtained in competitive concurrence, and will have additional funding from the IAA-CSIC, as well as the participation of various public and private entities. 

ASTROSOUND, THE MOST INDIE UNIVERSE

ASTROSOUND is a scientific and cultural event with an original, popular, open character and a great impact on citizens. Located in the heart of the city of Granada, it aims to disseminate the most cutting-edge knowledge about the cosmos through the connection with the most current pop-rock music of the national and international scene.

It arises in 2022 from the collaboration between three institutions from different fields: the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), which acts as the main promoter and curator of the event, the Granada Sound, one of the pop-rock festivals of greater impact and popularity nationally, and the City Council of Granada, which has in science, innovation, culture and tourism its main pillars of development.

This year 2023, the festival plays with the concept of "Miradores de Granada" and offers a colorful graphic proposal that plays with the concept of "looking" through different eyes the different landscapes of Granada. With ASTROSOUND II we intend to extend this concept and offer the citizens of Granada and the audience of the festival a "Lookout to the Cosmos", emphasizing the multidimensional nature of astrophysics, and the different cosmic landscapes that unfold when observing in radio, microwave, infrared, optical, ultraviolet and high energies (X-rays and gamma rays).

GRAVITY BAZAAR

The GRAVITY BAZAAR project consists of using the materials obtained in the elaboration of the popular science series TERRITORIO GRAVEDAD, premiered on TVE's La2 and available on video platforms, to design a complete bazaar of teaching material. It proposes to elaborate 50 videos of between 10 and 20 minutes each, focused on a specific topic of the physics of the cosmos, which will feature specialist researchers of the highest prestige in each specialty, illustrative resources and fictional sequences. These videos are conceived as pieces to be used in classrooms as teaching material for discretionary use by teachers of secondary schools (ESO and Bachillerato) and university degrees in physics.

The project has the support of the digital platform PLATINO EDUCA of the EGEDA (Society of services for audiovisual producers), a platform that will host the videos and to which a large part of the Spanish and Latin American educational community has access.

ESPACIO 3

The idea of creating "Espacio3: laboratory of science and performing arts" arises from the search for new spaces for interaction, creation and experimentation between scientific dissemination and art in a "stable" format, in a fixed date with science. Espacio3 aims to foster the relationship between science, technology, art and society. It aims to create a new space of expression that fuses science and theater in an unconventional way. The philosophy of this space is based on the convergence and synergy of different techniques of communication and expression: theater, improvisation and speech. Science and performing arts, diverse areas whose amalgamation will allow to establish new connections; to look for answers and, for sure, to raise new questions.

HORIZONS OF LIGHT - RELOADED

There are many audiovisuals with high quality astronomical content, but in general they are focused on a particular project, instrument or particular aspect of astrophysical research. Horizons of light aims to go a step further and function as an audiovisual series whose content is intertwined to form a global and connected image of the multidisciplinary and cutting-edge research being carried out in astrophysics in Spain. The project is committed to cinematographic quality and distribution through the Internet and other exhibition channels, which will serve to inform Spanish and international society about the most cutting-edge research and technological development currently being carried out in the science of the cosmos and the scientific challenges it faces.