Starting on Tuesday March 15th and lasting until Thursday 17th, researchers, engineers, and developers of big data in the space sector attended the conference Big Data from Space (BiDS’16) organized in Tenerife. The director of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) gave an address, together with other personalities, at the opening ceremony which took place in the Adán Martín Auditorium. "Exploring the universe" he said, "generates huge quantities of data, both on the ground and in space, which need to be transmitted and processed efficiently. In this field the IAC is collaborating, and needs to increase its collaboration, with the European Space Agency at a number of levels".

Big data is the management and analysis of huge quantities of data which cannot be treated conventionally. The term covers the infrastructure, technology, and services required to process it, which may include sensors, microphones, cameras, medical scanners or images.

The meeting, which was organized by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and the Satellite Centre (SatCen) of the European Union was supported by a collaboration from the IAC, the Science and Technology Park of Tenerife (PCTT), the University of La Laguna (ULL), the Institute of Technology and Renewable Energy (ITER) and the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, among other Spanish and European organizations.

Entry was free, and the lectures were only in English. Those attending the Conference had the opportunity to visit the ITER and the Teide Observatory on Friday March 18th, after making a prior booking.