ERDF FUNDS

 

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the main financial instruments of European cohesion policy. It was set up in 1975 with the aim of helping to reduce disparities between the levels of development of European regions and to improve living standards in the less favoured regions.

The ERDF has two main objectives:

• Investment in growth and jobs, which is aimed at strengthening the labour market and regional economies.
• European territorial cooperation, aimed at strengthening cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation within the Union.

The Yebes Observatory, located in the municipality of Yebes in Guadalajara, is a Spanish Singular Technical Scientific Infrastructure under the National Geographic Institute (IGN). It has two fully operational radio telescopes of 40 metres and 13.2 metres and a centre for technological developments in radio astronomy.

Within the Spanish Multiregional Operational Programme, the National Centre for Geographic Information (CNIG) is one of the beneficiaries through the YDALGO and YNART projects, both of which aim to promote research, technological development and innovation and which have enabled a series of improvements to be made to the Yebes Observatory.

 

 

YDALGO project financed with European ERDF funds.

In 2018, the YDALGO project was launched through the National Centre for Geographic Information (CNIG) to improve its technical infrastructures and equipment, in particular for the construction of a new laboratory and workshop building, and the expansion of the space geodesy instrumentation, with a laser telemetry station for satellites. This project has been financed to the tune of 7.6 million euros from the European ERDF regional development funds managed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

The construction of the new laboratory and workshop building has provided the Yebes Observatory with the appropriate facilities and the most advanced equipment for the manufacture of high precision and quality components. Among the actions carried out, a cryogenic station for coplanar tips, a laser prototyping station for circuit prototyping and metrology equipment for precision physical measurements have been acquired, in addition to the construction of a class 10,000 clean room for component assembly.

The construction of a satellite laser telemetry station, commonly known as SLR, will make it possible to form part of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) promoted by the International Association of Geodesy and thus constitute the Yebes Observatory as a Fundamental Geodetic Station.

The new laboratories and workshops, together with their equipment, and the laser telemetry station open up new possibilities at the Yebes Observatory that substantially improve its performance and allow it to maintain its excellent international technological level.

 

YNART project financed with European ERDF funds

In 2020, the YNART project was launched through the National Centre for Geographic Information to upgrade the 40 metres radio telescope and set up a radio astronomy correlator. This project has received funding of 2.8 million euros from the European ERDF regional development funds managed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

The work on the radio telescope consisted of the thermal insulation of the azimuthal cabin and the 40 metres radio telescope support tower, the installation of temperature sensors in the structure to study the deformations of the telescope, the implementation of a periodic pitching system in the secondary reflector and the design and manufacture of a 4 to 18 GHz receiver.

The implementation of a radio astronomical and geodetic correlator for the Atlantic Network of Geodynamic and Space Stations (RAEGE) and for the EU-VGOS project will allow processing and combining signals from multiple telescopes and studying the multi-frequency structure of quasars, as well as determining the orientation of the Earth in space and monitoring movements in the Earth's crust.

Thanks to the European funding, the 40 metres radio telescope will continue to be at the international forefront of radio astronomy, and the Yebes Observatory will reinforce the International VLBI Service with an astronomical correlator, ensuring the implementation of the EU-VGOS and RAEGE projects.