SpaRCIM is the Spanish Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. It is the Spanish representative in ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. SpaRCIM is sponsored by the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO).

Spain joined ERCIM in 1993 through AEDIMA, the first "consortium type" member of ERCIM. In 2003, after a foundational meeting, participation continued through SpaRCIM, a more focused consortium aimed at representing Spanish computer science research in ERCIM. In 2004 SpaRCIM organized the ERCIM Fall meetings.

ERCIM/SpaRCIM Fellowships

SpaRCIM cofunds, through the EU-COFUND ABCDE grant and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) SpaRCIM complementary action, together with the SpaRCIM member institutions in Spain, the ERCIM Alain Bensoussan Fellowship Programme.

Researchers interested in a fellowship at SpaRCIM institutions should apply at the ERCIM central pages, selecting SpaRCIM as the host institute.

Other post-doc and graduate scholarship programs (in ERCIM-related areas) in Spain include:

• Juan de la Cierva (post-doc) and Ramón y Cajal programs.
• Post-Docs and PhD scholarships at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA / CSIC).
• Post-Doc and PhD scholarship programs at the IMDEA Software Institute.

Mission

The mission of SpaRCIM is the promotion and coordination of Spanish research groups in order to face the challenges raised by current and future problems in computer science and applied mathematics. Within these areas, SpaRCIM aims at promoting high-quality research through multiple activities on the European scene, and in particular within ERCIM, such as participating in working groups, setting-up joint projects, granting awards, disseminating results to a broad audience (including the research community, industry, and the public in general), or co-funding fellowships under the ERCIM Alain Bensoussan programme (see below).

Research

The main research areas of SpaRCIM are centered around:

• Formal methods and programming languages: design and analysis of critical systems, quality and security of computing systems, rule-based programming, optimization, parallel and concurrent systems, programmer efficiency.
• Software engineering: agile methods, components, e-mobility, mobile internet, web engineering, architecture, e-democracy, service oriented and model driven engineering.
• Artificial intelligence: machine learning, multi-agent systems, constraint-based reasoning, ontologies, semantic web services, image processing and recognition.
• Information systems: data mining, databases, data warehouses, modeling, decision support sytems.

The ERCIM pages contain more information on the particular areas in which SpaRCIM is active within ERCIM.

Members

SpaRCIM's decentralized organization is currently spread over six universities and two research institutes (from the Spanish Research Council, CSIC, and the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies, IMDEA):

Institution	Contact point
Artificial Intelligence Research Institute - CSIC (IIIA / CSIC)	Ramón López de Mántaras
CITIC - University of Granada (CITIC / UGR)	Alberto Prieto
IMDEA Software Institute	Manuel Hermenegildo
Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC)	Esperanza Marcos
Technical University of Catalunya (UPC)	Fco. Javier Larrosa
Technical University of Madrid (UPM)	Manuel Carro
Technical University of Valencia (UPV)	María Alpuente
University of Malaga (UMA)	Ernesto Pimentel

SpaRCIM groups around 500 scientists including over 200 doctoral students and 40 postdocs and engineers.

Organization

Director	Secretary
Manuel Hermenegildo IMDEA Software Institute Facultad de Informática Campus Montegancedo, U. Pol. de Madrid (UPM) 28660. Boadilla del Monte-Madrid. Spain	Esperanza Marcos Rey Juan Carlos University c/ Tulipán s/n. 28933. Móstoles Madrid. Spain
Tel: +34-91-101-2202 Fax: +34-91-101-1358	Tel: +34-91-664-74-91 Fax: +34-91-664-74-90
Executive Commitee Member and ABCDE Strategy Representative	Newsletter Editor
Pedro Merino Gómez Languages and Computer Science Dpt. School of Informátics University of Malaga 29071 Málaga. Spain	Silvia Abrahao Computer and Informatics Systems Technical University of Valencia Camino de Vera s/n E-46022 Valencia. Spain
Tel: +34-952-13-1396 Fax: +34-952-13-1397	Tel: +34-96-387-7007 [ext. 83516] Fax: +34-96-387-7359
Mobility and ABCDE Program Selection Committee Representative	European Liaison Officer
Francisco Javier Larrosa Bondia Department of Languages and Systems Technical University of Catalonia Campus Diagonal Nord. Edificio Omega C. Jordi Girona, 29. 08034 Barcelona	Ramón López de Mántaras IIIA - Artificial Intelligence Research Institute CSIC - Spanish Research Council Autonomous University of Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra. Catalonia. Spain
Tel: +34-93-413-7839 Fax: +34-93-413-7833	Tel: +34-93-580-9570 Fax: +34-93-580-9661