The “VISTA variables in the Via Lactea” (VVV) Survey is an ESO Public NIR time-domain survey of the inner Milky Way. VVV aims to map the Galactic bulge as well as an adjacent section of the mid-plane, covering stellar populations all the way to the Galactic center, including regions of intense star formation. This survey has been performing time-domain observations in the Ks-band for over 5 years and provides an atlas of 562 sq. deg. of the sky in 5 wavebands (ZYJHKs), including about a billion objects. The VVV Survey data products offer a unique dataset to map the stellar populations deeply embedded in highly obscured regions. The main scientific goal is to study the 3-D structure of the inner Milky Way using star clusters and variable stars, as well as to investigate a veriety of interesting objects.

In this talk I will describe the main scientific goal of the VVV Survey, as well as a variety of interesting discoveries. In particular, I will present and focus on the specific search we have been carrying about variable stars in Galactic open clusters.