NEREA is a stable, compact, high-resolution spectrometer concept for the GTC. NEREA is proposed as a general purpose instrument with a variety of science cases, however, its top level requirements are driven by two science goals in mind: i) The discovery and characterization of planets around nearby late-M type stars. Using GTC's large 10m collecting area, NEREA would be capable of reaching out for planets around cooler, smaller and dimmer stars than current facilities; contributing to completing the census of small planets in our stellar neighborhood (<30pc). ii) The characterization of planetary atmospheres from Hot-Jupiters to Super-earths. NEREA would be capable of detecting species including H2O, CH4, CO2 and ionized metals in planetary atmospheres; as well as detecting and resolving individual Na I, Hα and He I line profiles, improving our understanding of the physical and chemical evolution of planetary atmospheres. Due to the GTC's collecting area, the current planetary sample size can be expected to increase by ∼40 times.