Multimessenger Approach for Dark Matter Detection (MultiDark) is an excellence project in which most of the Spanish research community working in the field of dark matter is involved. The project is funded for a period of 5 years, starting December 2009, by the CONSOLIDER-Ingenio 2010 Programme of the Secretary of State for Research. 13 out of a total of 101 proposals in all branches of knowledge were selected that year.
MultiDark consists of 11 theoretical, experimental and astrophysics groups with researchers from 18 Spanish universities and research institutes. It also includes 11 senior researchers from foreign institutions. In total MultiDark involves presently about 120 researchers, more than 20 of which are directly hired by the project as postdocs, Ph.D. students, or technicians.
The main goal of MultiDark is to push forward the Spanish position in the field by creating synergies and collaborations among the participating groups, in order to contribute significantly to the worldwide efforts to identify and detect the dark matter. To this end, the most plausible particle candidates for dark matter are studied, the way these candidates are distributed in the Universe is investigated, the development of experiments aiming at their detection is supported, and, finally, the combination of LHC data with those from direct and indirect searches is analysed.
More information about the MultiDark project can be found in the web site: http://www.multidark.es
ABOUT the CONSOLIDER Programme
The CONSOLIDER Programme is part of the strategy INGENIO 2010 that was in force during 5 years in Spain between 2006 and 2010. It funds for a period of 5 years strategic actions based on scientific activities that promote a significant advance in the state of knowledge or establish lines of original research located in what is called the frontier of knowledge.
The CONSOLIDER term refers to teams that are recipients of such an aid, consolidated groups leading Spanish science with previous quality results, and with a sound and proven record within the international scientific community. The teams must have a critical mass of researchers, significantly higher than usual in the corresponding area of research.
The total number of CONSOLIDER projects awarded in these 5 years in all branches of knowledge was 77, out of which only 6 in the areas of Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology.
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