EMIR is a wide-field, near-IR spectrograph currently under development for the Nasmyth focus of the Spanish 10.4m GTC at Canary Islands. EMIR will provide imaging and multi-slit spectroscopy in the ˜1-2.5 micron domain at a resolution of R˜5000-4000. This paper reviews the status of the project, including instrumental developments and main science drivers, focusing the GOYA Survey, a scientific program to be developed mainly using the guaranteed time of the international consortium building EMIR. The GOYA project addresses the formation and evolution of galaxies, in particular the structure, dynamics and integrated stellar populations of galaxies at high redshift. One of the main goals of the GOYA survey is the identification and study of z ≥ 7 sources, both in lensing clusters and in the field. The aim is to build up a statistically significant sample of galaxies with secure redshifts, and to study their physical properties using their broad-band spectral energy distribution in one hand, and their emission line properties on the other hand. The first results obtained from our photometric surveys in lensing fields and in the blank field CFHT WIRCAM Ultra Deep Survey (WUDS), which are intended to provide a robust selection of targets for GOYA, are also presented and briefly discussed.