The Spanish National University of Distance Education (UNED) is a Spanish public university that provides distance education at national and international levels. It was founded in 1972 to enable priority access to university and further education for all those who, while capable of pursuing higher studies, were unable to attend on – campus classes for work, financial, residential or other reasons. At present, it has a network of more than 60 Centres throughout the country where students have access to all kinds of academic services, including libraries, audiovisual materials, face-to-face tutorials, videoconferencing and a virtual campus (telematic tutoring). UNED is the largest university in Spain with more than 170.000 students enrolled in its different modalities of education and training. The difference between the UNED and the other universities in Spain lies on its geographic dimension (national and international – 12 Study Centres abroad) and on the use of distance methodology and complementary pedagogical tools (Television, Radio, Video and Virtual Campus). 1.200 full time teaching staff, 6.000 tutors and 1.200 administrative and technical staff make all this possible. UNED is now providing technical assistance and consultancy services to many institutions in Latin America and in Europe in matters such as networking of study centers, virtualization of distance education courses, or the methodology and production of distance teaching didactic materials.The UNED through the Vice-Rector’s Office for Quality and Internationalization, promote and facilitate the international mobility of students of Bachelor, Master and Doctorate and the mobility of their teaching and their administration and services staff, through the Erasmus + Program.Mobility is done through Erasmus + bilateral agreements between the UNED and the universities associated with the program, allowing the exchange of staff too. The period of student mobility allows recognition of guaranteed credits taken before going abroad. The program allows staff mobility and benefits students, teachers and administrative staff and services curricula

The Spanish National University of Distance Education (UNED) is a Spanish public university that provides distance education at national and international levels. It was founded in 1972 to enable priority access to university and further education for all those who, while capable of pursuing higher studies, were unable to attend on – campus classes for work, financial, residential or other reasons. At present, it has a network of more than 60 Centres throughout the country where students have access to all kinds of academic services, including libraries, audiovisual materials, facetoface tutorials, videoconferencing and a virtual campus (telematic tutoring). UNED is the largest university in Spain with more than 260.000 students enrolled in its different modalities of education and training. UNED offers 26 Degree degrees, 43 masters, more than 600 Continuing Education programs, 12 language courses, more than a hundred Summer Courses and almost 400 other university activities. The difference between the UNED and the other universities in Spain lies on its geographic dimension (national and international – 12 Study Centres abroad) and on the use of distance methodology and complementary pedagogical tools (Television, Radio, Video and Virtual Campus). 1.200 full time teaching staff, 6.000 tutors and 1.200 administrative and technical staff make all this possible. UNED is now providing technical assistance and consultancy services to many institutions in Latin America and in Europe in matters such as networking of study centers, virtualization of distance education courses, or the methodology and production of distance teaching didactic materials. The UNED through the Vicerrectorate for Investigation and Internationalization, promote and facilitate the international mobility of students of Bachelor, Master and Doctorate and the mobility of their teaching and their administration and services staff, through the Erasmus + Program.Mobility is done through Erasmus + bilateral agreements between the UNED and the universities associated with the program, allowing the exchange of staff too. The period of student mobility allows recognition of guaranteed credits taken before going abroad. The program allows staff mobility and benefits students, teachers and administrative staff and services curricula. During the academic year 2016/2017, 53 students of the UNED have studied in different European universities and 27 European students have been received. Also 14 professors have moved to European universities and 13 foreign teachers from European universities have been received in UNED. On the other hand 9 Erasmus + of personnel for training have been selected to obtain the financial grants.

"The National University of Distance Education (UNED) is a Spanish public university, with her 47 years old, offers distance education in a national and international level. The mission of the UNED focuses on performing the public service of higher education through teaching, study, research and knowledge transfer, assuming the commitment to provide maximum access to university education. The continuity of studies and life-long, training for all kinds of people. Her methodology ( ""distance learning"") combines the most advanced technologies with personalized, digital and in-person tutoring. The objectives are:a) To be the reference university in the country both in distance university education and in digital higher education based on the most advanced educational technologies, with the aim of projecting its essential activities mainly to countries that share the use of the Spanish language.b) To be the public university that contributes the most to favor the access of Spanish society to higher education, incorporating all types of people into the university system, especially those with access difficulties, and offering an attractive, rigorous and adapted training offer to society under the principles of quality in teaching and academic excellence.c) To be a university that integrates and values ​​the different resources to establish a future model of research and knowledge transfer.During the academic year 2017/2018: 28 Degrees, 76 Masters, 19 Doctorates RD / 2011, 1 access course for over 25s and 1 access course for over 45s were given, in addition to teaching 16 language courses through of its University Center for Distance Languages. In addition, it has more than 600 Continuing Education programs, more than a hundred Summer Courses and almost 400 University Extension activities.They are enrolled 128,849 undergraduate students , 9,342 undergraduate students, 9592 undergraduate courses and 13,357 undergraduate courses. Languages. In the network of centers abroad (12 centers) maintained by UNED, 2,131 students were enrolled in America and 2,926 in Europe. 54.1% of the students enrolled in the UNED are women (87,131) and 45.9% are men (74,039).Currently, it has a network of more than 60 centers throughout the country, where students have access to all kinds of academic services, including libraries, audiovisual materials, face-to-face tutorials, videoconferences and a virtual campus (telematic tutoring), Radio and TV studio. It employs 1,207 full-time teachers, 6,000 teachers-tutors from associated centers and 1,238 administrative and technical employees make all this possible.UNED is providing technical assistance and consultancy services to many institutions in Latin America and Europe in matters such as the creation of networks of study centers, the virtualization of distance education courses, or the methodology and production of teaching materials. of distance learning.The UNED through the Vice-Rectorate of Institutional Policy and International Relations, promotes and facilitates the international mobility of Undergraduate, Master and Doctorate students; of its teachers and administration and services staff of the university, through the Erasmus + Program, and other programs of external financing and own financing. The mobility is carried out thanks to the bilateral agreements that exist between the UNED and the universities associated with the program, which allows the exchange of personnel. The period of mobility of the students supposes an acknowledgment of the credits completed guaranteed before the departure abroad. The mobility program allows a personal and curricular benefit to students, professors and administration and services personnel. During the academic year 2017/2018 , 43 UNED students have completed a study stay in different European universities and 13 European students have been received, also 15 UNED professors have also traveled to European universities to teach, and 6 staff people, have been moving for training."

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.

The overall research goal of this proposal is to develop a multidisciplinary study of the little known long-necked dinosaurs of North Africa using virtual paleontology techniques (developed in my PhD thesis) histological data on the fossil material, pneumatic apparatus reconstruction and phylogenetic analysis to understand the significance of a range of new species. The project will have a major impact in the fields of paleontology and biology, generating critical new data on the large terrestrial vertebrates of a major continent during a period of the Mesozoic that experienced sea level and temperature changes resulting in major extinctions. The fossil material comprises the single largest undescribed fauna from any major continent during the latter half of the Mesozoic. The high-profile scientific results to come from this research over two-years in the Department of Organismal Biology (University of Chicago), under the supervision of Prof. Sereno, will boost my academic profile and experience in the fields of paleontology and evolution, significantly increasing the chance to continue my career by leading a multidisciplinary and diverse research group in the field of paleobiology in Europe.