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It is a pleasure to announce the Special Issue “Gravity, black holes and 
cosmology XXI”. Since its first applications in the XX century, and the 
crowning with the formulation of the Standard Model of electroweak and 
strong interactions, quantum field theory has evolved, both in meaning 
and intention. Its perturbative and nonperturbative incarnations have 
been playing an undisputed role in modern theoretical physics, not only 
in the refinement of the Standard Model and of its supersymmetric 
extensions, but also in the quest for a quantum theory of gravitation, 
carried on in the programs of string theory, supergravity, and many 
other quantum gravities (nonlocal quantum gravity, asymptotic safety, 
group field theory, and so on), and in our understanding of 
astrophysical and cosmological processes, ranging from the Big Bang to 
stellar evolution, and from the cosmological constant to gravitational 
waves.

This Special Issue aims to recapitulate part of these achievements and 
offer a perspective on near- and far-future applications of quantum 
field theory and gravity in the present century, including nonlocal 
quantum gravity, general gravitational theories beyond Einstein's 
gravity, black holes at the classical and quantum level, cosmology, and 
observational tests. It also serves as the proceedings of the conference.

All invited speakers and contributors are welcome to submit a paper 
based on their talk in the Special Issue "Gravity, black holes and 
cosmology XXI" in the journal Universe:

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http://www.mdpi.com/journal/universe/special_issues/gravity_black_holes_cosmology 

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There is no length limit for plenary speakers, while contributions from 
parallel talks will be limited to 5 pages plus references. All papers 
will be published FREE OF CHARGE. The deadline for submission is June 
30, 2018. All papers in this special issue will be published *free of 
charge*.

Important: the best submitted paper will be selected for a prize of 300CHF.