CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION ECOLOGICA Y APLICACIONES FORESTALES

Their core work

CREAF is a leading Spanish ecological research centre focused on understanding how terrestrial ecosystems — particularly forests — respond to climate change, drought, and land-use pressure. They combine Earth observation and remote sensing with field-based ecological research to monitor vegetation health, model ecosystem services, and develop nature-based solutions for climate adaptation. Their applied work spans forest genetics, water resource monitoring, agricultural policy modelling, and urban green infrastructure, making them a bridge between fundamental ecology and actionable environmental management.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2015–2018, CREAF focused heavily on Earth observation infrastructure (ConnectinGEO, ERA-PLANET, ECOPOTENTIAL) and fundamental plant physiology through a string of MSCA fellowships on tree hydraulics, soil nutrients, and drought response. From 2019 onward, their portfolio shifted toward applied environmental management — nature-based solutions, ecosystem services valuation, agricultural policy modelling, and biodiversity monitoring — while maintaining their remote sensing capabilities. This evolution shows a deliberate move from building observation tools and generating ecological knowledge toward translating that knowledge into policy-relevant and urban-applicable solutions.

CREAF is moving from pure ecological monitoring toward applied climate adaptation, biodiversity policy tools, and forest genetic resilience — positioning themselves as translators between ecological science and environmental decision-making.

How they like to work

CREAF operates as both a consortium leader and a sought-after specialist partner, with 13 coordinated projects (mostly MSCA fellowships nurturing early-career researchers) and 22 participations in larger multi-partner consortia. Their 432 unique partners across 53 countries indicate a remarkably wide network for a mid-sized research centre, suggesting they are a well-connected hub rather than a closed-circle institution. This dual mode — leading focused research fellowships while contributing specialized ecology expertise to large consortia — makes them flexible and experienced collaborators at any project scale.

With 432 unique consortium partners across 53 countries, CREAF has one of the broadest collaboration networks among European ecological research centres. Their partnerships span the full EU and extend globally, with particularly strong ties to Mediterranean and Northern European institutions working on climate and environmental monitoring.

What sets them apart

CREAF sits at a rare intersection: they combine deep fundamental research in plant physiology and forest ecology with strong technical capacity in Earth observation and remote sensing. This means they can both generate ecological knowledge in the field and validate it at landscape scale using satellite data — a combination few centres can offer. Their track record of hosting numerous MSCA fellows also signals a vibrant research environment that attracts international talent, making them an excellent partner for projects needing ecological expertise grounded in both fieldwork and spatial data science.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FORGENIUS
  Their largest single H2020 grant (EUR 640K), focused on forest genetic resources — signals a major investment in biodiversity and forest resilience as a growth area.
• DISTRESS
  Coordinated project directly combining their two core strengths — drought physiology and functional traits — producing mechanistic understanding of how tree size affects drought vulnerability.
• COS4CLOUD
  Their second-largest grant (EUR 562K), contributing ecological data expertise to a major citizen science cloud platform connecting biodiversity monitoring with European Open Science Cloud infrastructure.