  Valuable insights into galaxy evolution can be gleaned from studies of
resolved stellar populations in the local Universe. Deep photometric surveys
have provided tracers of the star-formation histories in galaxies from 0.8-16
Mpc, but without robust chemical abundances and stellar kinematics from
spectroscopy, their sub-structures and assembly histories remain hidden from
us. In this context, we introduce the EAGLE design study for a
multi--integral-field-unit, near-infrared spectrograph for the European
Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). EAGLE will exploit the unprecedented
light-gathering power of the E-ELT to deliver AO-corrected spectroscopy across
a large (38.5 sq. arcmin) field, truly revolutionising our view of stellar
populations in the Local Volume.
