Resumen
GTC imaging/spectroscopy of GRB afterglows localized by various satellites will be a very powerful tool for the study of the high redshift Universe. The scientific aim is the rapid identification of the optical counterparts to the gamma-ray events, and the study of their variability, their spectra, and their environments. This will take advantage of the enormous collecting power of the GTC, which will allow us to achieve breakthroughs in the GRB field, such as checking whether a supernova-like contribution is present in the host spectrum at late times. Host spectroscopy and tunable-filter imaging are also foreseen in order to characterize the host galaxy and determine whether the GRB locations lie on top of star forming regions in the parent galaxies. Moreover, the GTC instrumentation is likely to be very efficient in detecting intrinsically absorbed afterglows, as well as the so-called short/hard GRBs undectected to date in the optical.
