  The EXTraS project (Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky) will
harvest the hitherto unexplored temporal domain information buried in the
serendipitous data collected by the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC)
instrument onboard the ESA XMM-Newton X-ray observatory since its launch. This
will include a search for fast transients, as well as a search and
characterization of variability (both periodic and aperiodic) in hundreds of
thousands of sources spanning more than nine orders of magnitude in time scale
and six orders of magnitude in flux. X-ray results will be complemented by
multiwavelength characterization of new discoveries. Phenomenological
classification of variable sources will also be performed. All our results will
be made available to the community. A didactic program in selected High Schools
in Italy, Germany and the UK will also be implemented. The EXTraS project
(2014-2016), funded within the EU/FP7 framework, is carried out by a
collaboration including INAF (Italy), IUSS (Italy), CNR/IMATI (Italy),
University of Leicester (UK), MPE (Germany) and ECAP (Germany).
