we plan to address the following issues:

1. QCD thermodynamics with lattice simulations and phenomenological models
   

1. Microscopic origin of the small shear viscosity of the Quark Gluon Plasma which has been experimentally observed
   

1. Color Glass Condensate effects on the dynamical evolution of the system
   

1. Study of the coalescence hadronization mechanism and its applications to experimental observables
   

1. Heavy quark physics and quarkonia
   

1. Study of the QCD phase diagram at finite density