The Executive Committee of the international collaboration SDSS-IV (http://www.sdss3.org/future/), directed by Mike Blanton (NYU) and comprising eight international members including Claudia Maraston from the ICG, reached the goal to achieve the required funding to start the SDSS-IV mission. The Exec met every week since November 2013 to discuss and push several agreements with different institutions around the world. Critical to the achievement of this goal was the MOU signed with the Carnegie Observatory (Pasadena) to gain observing time at the Las Campanas observatory and host the new southern spectrograph for APOGEE-II. This project will finally look through the Bulge of our Galaxy the Milky Way directly from the southern hemisphere. The Apogee II is kindly funded by the Sloan Foundation. The ICG is full member of SDSS-IV and ICG researchers hold several leading roles in the mission. Claudia Maraston is member of the Executive Committee and Advisory Council, Karen Masters is chair of Education and Public Engagement, Bob Nichol is member of MaNGA advisory committee, Will Percival is eBOSS Survey Scientist, Daniel Thomas is MaNGA Science Team Chair.
Now we are ready to dive into new exciting discoveries for the next six years!