In the 8-10m telescopes age and facing the ELTs for the coming decades, the future of smaller aperture telescopes is being redefined in many countries. There are also initiatives of new operating modes of such telescopes in order to lower expenses and maximize the scientific return in the areas where these instruments are more competitive.

In Europe, ASTRONET and OPTICON have set up a committee (European Telescope Strategy Review Committee – ETSRC) that has released a report in order to “to identify how Europe’s medium sized telescopes can best contribute to the delivery of the Science Vision and to propose how a suite of existing telescopes can do so in a cost effective way”.

This working group has been entrusted to send to the RIA Board, by the 1st of December 2010, the following deliverables:

• To produce a census of the optical/infrared 2-4m class  telescopes that are available to the Spanish community (fully or partially), whether in Spanish or foreign ground. This census will also contain information about the available or planned instruments in those telescopes, and their characteristics.
• To map these assets in the context of the needs identified in the ETSRC report.
• In view of the foregoing and other needs for the Spanish research community, to propose actions to be considered by the RIA Board.

This working group will be supported by the RIA Coordinator and the RIA Manager to fulfill these tasks.

People related to CAHA and ORM should take part of this Group, as well as representatives of users, of MCIU and some external member with expertise in this kind of observatories.

It will be led by people directly related to those infrastructures at the CSIC or IAC, given their greater knowledge and involvement in them.