The AWAKE experiment at CERN: Recent achievements and future plans.

The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) aims at demonstrating proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration of electrons. AWAKE uses a 400 GeV, high-intensity proton bunch from the CERN SPS to drive wakefields in a 10 metres long rubidium plasma where a 16 MeV electron bunch is injected. The first experimental run, concluded in 2018, demonstrated the acceleration of electrons up to an energy of 2 GeV and elucidated basic mechanisms behind the formation of wakefields such as the proton bunch self-modulation. We will present the main achievements of AWAKE and present the plans and studies for the second run foreseen in 2021.