The overall aim of the project is to study the morphology, stellar populations, kinematics and dynamics (including formation and evolution) of the Milky Way and its satellite galaxies and other Local Group galaxies. The project can be divided into two main lines:
 

I. Structure of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.
The detailed study of the morphology aims to provide a database of stellar distribution in the outermost and extinct regions of our Galaxy or in other galaxies. A combination of our own data are used together with public photometric (UKIDSS, VISTA-VVV near-infrared or SDSS) or spectroscopic (SDSS-APOGEE near-infrared, LAMOST) catalogues. The research group has also been integrated in the Spanish "Gaia" node with the idea of orienting part of our work in the scientific exploitation of the photometric and astrometric data of the most important survey for Galactic studies: the Gaia mission. Detailed information is available on the stellar distribution of the dominant stellar populations over a wide area of sky, covering different structural components in the Milky Way: triaxial bulge, long bar, disc, spiral arms, halo. The gas and dust components are also studied in infrared, or in microwave (Galactic contamination studies of the cosmic microwave background, for example with Planck data). 

II. Dynamical studies and studies of the formation and evolution of galactic components.
The kinematic and dynamical analyses aim at understanding the origin of the observed structures andtheir time evolution. The velocity maps of the Milky Way (obtained with Gaia data and complemented with spectroscopic data that allow a better determination of radial velocities, or to separate populations with different ages or metallicities) can be fitted with different theoretical scenarios to determine whether the Milky Way is in equilibrium or not, the origin of its warping, etc.