Convinced that involvement in the development of cutting-edge infrastructures is crucial for scientific return, since 2005 I have strived to boost Spain’s participation in instrumentation projects. That year, I became IAA’s Deputy Director for Technology, overseeing the joint operation of the Calar Alto Observatory with the MPIfA. I served on the Expert Committee of the Spanish e-Science Network, represented Spain on the European Southern Observatory User Committee, and am member of the Spanish Advisory Committee of Singular Infrastructures, nominated by the Ministry as its next President. I am also responsible for the “State-Of-The-Art Instrumentation” line of the IAA’s Severo Ochoa Excellence programme, member of its Executive and Scientific Committees, and “garante”. A milestone in my career was adding a strong technological component to my fundamental science background, mobilising the national community since 2011 to engage in the SKAO, the largest ground-based infrastructure in astronomy for the coming years and of great interest to the Spanish community. This effort has led to over 77 Spanish researchers joining SKA committees, more than 20 centres and companies participating in the SKA design, and 5 SKAO construction contracts awarded to Spanish companies. I have also promoted the developments of our industry, including the renewable energy sector, and the use of clean energies in the SKA with a presentation at the European Parliament. After extensive work in coordination with the Spanish Ministry of Science, this led to the Spanish Council of Ministers approving Spain’s membership of the intergovernmental SKAO in 2023. I was appointed by the Ministry to the Spanish delegation on the SKAO Council. Since 2019, I have received €1.25M in direct funds for coordinating SKA-Spain. As part of my SKAO responsibilities, I am President of the Radio Astronomy group of the Astronomy Infrastructure Network (advisor to the Spanish Ministry), Spain’s representative in the European SKA Forum, and Chair of the “RadioNet review panel for Apertif archive and user portal”. From 2015 to 2019, I served on the Board designing the SKA Science Data Processor. In 2019, I began leading the development of a now fully functional SRC prototype (the espSRC) at the IAA, as part of an international network of SRCs. These will be SKA’s scientific core, providing access to data, computational resources, and scientific analysis tools to maximise the SKA’s scientific return for the Spanish community. This effort led to my appointment by the Ministry as Spain’s representative on the committee developing the first global SRC network, in which we are playing a key role. One of my key contributions has been introducing best practices in scientific integrity and the concept of Research Object to achieve reproducibility in SRC key technical reports (see references). We have supported 65 research, development, and training projects, embracing OS and green computing as core values, driving our innovation in developing science platforms. Consequently, I lead research to reduce the carbon footprint of SRCs and data centres using Artificial Intelligence and OS principles. I am the PI of the project “TED4SKA: A sustainable approach to data centres for the SKA Big Data infrastructure: the espSRC,” ranked 21 out of 2293 approved projects, the only one in Astrophysics and Space Sciences, and one of the top 5 in Physics.   References:

1. A. Chrysostomou et al., including L. Verdes-Montenegro. “The “SRC High Level Document”. Technical report from the SRC Coordination Group. 02/03/2017
2.  A. Chrysostomou et al., including L. Verdes-Montenegro. “SKA Regional Centres: background and framework (SKA‐TEL‐SKO‐0000706)”.Technical report from the SRC Coordination Group. 06/06/2017
3. R. Bolton et al., including L. Verdes-Montenegro. “The ‘SKA Regional Centre Requirements’, SKA-TEL-SKO-0000735”. Technical report from the SRC Coordination Group. 27/09/2017
4. R. Bolton et al., including L. Verdes-Montenegro. “A model for SKA Regional Centre Global Size estimation, SKA-TEL-SKO-0001000”. Technical report from the SRC Coordination Group. 03/12/2018
5. L. Verdes-Montenegro, J. Garrido, S. Sánchez, A. Alberdi. “Summary Of The Document ‘SKA Regional Centres. White Paper By The SKA Regional Centre Steering Committee’ ”. Coordinación de la participación española de SKA. 27/04/2020
6. E. Galcerán, S. Sánchez, J. Garrido, O. Alonso, M. Ashdown, J. Moldón, L. Verdes-Montenegro. “SDP Metadata Analysis report”. Report for the project “Supporting Open Science in the Square Kilometre Array by collecting Provenance from its Science Data processor” (SKA-ProvSDP).
7. P. Quinn (Chair, Australia), et al. including L. Verdes-Montenegro. “A White Paper by the SKA Regional Centre Steering Committee”. Technical report from the SRC Steering Committee. 05/2020
8. E. Galcerán, S. Sánchez, J. Garrido, O. Alonso, L. Verdes-Montenegro. “SDP Design Recommendations”. Report for project “Supporting Open Science in the Square Kilometre Array by collecting Provenance from its Science Data processor (SKA-ProvSDP)”. 15/09/2020
9. E. Galcerán, S. Sánchez, J. Garrido, L. Verdes-Montenegro. “SDP Provenance Metadata Model”.Report for the project “Supporting Open Science in the Square Kilometre Array by collecting Provenance from its Science Data processor” (SKA-ProvSDP).  15/09/2020
10. E. Galcerán, S. Sánchez, J. Garrido, O. Alonso, L. Verdes- Montenegro. “Reference Provenance Metadata Model”. Report for project “Supporting Open Science in the Square Kilometre Array by collecting Provenance from its Science Data processor (SKA-ProvSDP)”. November 2020.
11. E. Galcerán, S. Sánchez, J. Garrido, L. Verdes-Montenegro. “Trade-off of available tools for provenance visualization”. Report for project “Supporting Open Science in the Square Kilometre Array by collecting Provenance from its Science Data processor (SKA-ProvSDP)”. 14/12/2020
12. R. Bolton, S. Breen, A. Chrysostomou, SKAO Regional Centre Steering Committee, included Verdes-Montenegro, L. “SRC Network Vision and Principles”. Report for the SKAO Regional Center Network. August 2023.