CREAF

What CREAF does

CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals) is a Catalan public ecological research center founded in 1987 and headquartered on the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) campus in Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain. It operates as a CERCA-network center with co-founding ties to UAB and CSIC, focusing its scientific program across four domains: Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, Global Change, and Earth Observation. Its core technical asset is MiraMon, a free, open-source GIS platform developed continuously for over 30 years, integrated with cloud data-sharing standards and metadata tooling for geospatial analysis. CREAF researchers have additionally contributed to international geospatial interoperability through editorial work on the OGC WMTS standard.

The center serves three primary constituencies: (1) the scientific research community, which consumes CREAF's peer-reviewed publications, open-access datasets, and long-term ecological monitoring programs; (2) government and policy-makers in Catalonia and beyond, who use CREAF's evidence base for environmental management and climate-adaptation decisions (e.g., the ACCUA water-and-agriculture vulnerability project); and (3) the general public, reached through citizen-science programs, science-communication campaigns (DesFake Clima, 28J identity campaign), and educational outreach. CREAF's business model is exclusively institutional: it generates no commercial product revenue, with funding drawn from the Generalitat de Catalunya, competitive European research grants (including ERC), national Spanish funding lines, and philanthropic/corporate project sponsors such as CatalunyaCaixa. MiraMon is distributed free of charge, eliminating software-licensing as a revenue lever entirely.

CREAF is operationally active in 2025–2026, with a headcount of 101–250, multiple ongoing international alliances (including a June 2026 strategic partnership with Colombia's Instituto Humboldt), and continued accreditation under the Severo Ochoa Excellence and HR Excellence in Research seals. Its competitive position rests on a deep talent bench in Mediterranean and global-change ecology, longitudinal ecological datasets accumulated over decades, and structural embedding within international scientific governance networks (IPCC, IPBES, OGC, EOSC, GEO, EFI, SER and others).

Name

CREAF

Legal name

Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals

Website

https://creaf.cat

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

CREAF is a Catalan public ecological research center founded in 1987, conducting research on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, global change, and Earth observation. It develops the open-source MiraMon GIS software and supports scientific research, environmental policy, and public science engagement.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Environmental and Ecological Research Services

NAICS

Environmental Consulting Services (54162), Administration of Conservation Programs (92412)

SIC

Forestry (800)

akta.pro primary industry

Forestry & Reforestation (BPAGAGAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Disaster Risk Reduction & Climate Risk Management (BPADALAK)

Keywords

• Ecological research services
• Environmental science consulting
• Biodiversity monitoring
• GIS geospatial software
• Climate change research

Headquarters

HQ city

Barcelona

HQ country

Spain

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals) is a Catalan public research center that conducts ecological research and produces applied environmental science for biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, global change, and earth observation. It develops the MiraMon GIS software (free, open-source) and delivers evidence-based environmental research and policy support through scientific publications, citizen science programs, and partnerships with public administrations.

Product overview

CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals) is a Catalan public research center focused on ecological research and applications. The organization's core offerings include four main research areas: Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, Global Change, and Earth Observation (remote sensing and GIS). CREAF has developed MiraMon, a free GIS software. The center engages in citizen science, educational programs, and produces annual reports under the CICLES publication. Research focuses span Mediterranean ecosystems, climate change impacts, and environmental monitoring across Catalonia.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• MiraMon GIS Software A free and open-source Geographic Information System (GIS) program developed by CREAF that integrates with various geospatial data formats and supports cloud data sharing standards and metadata management tools. The software is used by researchers, environmental managers, and GIS professionals for geospatial data analysis.

Quantifiable outcome

• DesFake Clima project won Agenda 2030 Barcelona + Sostenible 2026 award for combating climate misinformation in schools
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and supporting.

• Institut Humboldt (Colombia)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2026Strategic alliance between CREAF and Colombia's Instituto Humboldt to jointly drive global biodiversity research and conservation efforts.
• Parc Natural de la Serra de CollserolacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 January 2012Alliance to consolidate a mixed research and natural environment management station at Collserola, combining scientific research with practical conservation management.
• Generalitat de CatalunyacoreOthersPatronage and institutional support from the Catalan Government, one of CREAF's founding members through CERCA research center network.
• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost institution providing the campus location and academic framework. UAB is one of CREAF's founding institutions.
• CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSpanish National Research Council partnership providing additional research capacity and institutional framework.
• IRTA (Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on agricultural research including ACCUA project studying climate change impacts on water availability and agriculture in Catalonia.
• ETC-LUSIsupportingTechnology or IntegrationTechnical collaboration partner in ACCUA project contributing specialized hydrological expertise.
• Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration in ACCUA project with the UPC Groundwater Hydrology Group providing technical expertise.
• International Organizations NetworkmajorOthersActive member of: Alternet, EBCC (European Bird Census Council), IPCC, IPBES, European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (eBMS), European Forest Institute (EFI), Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), Water Europe, Euromontana, IUFRO, MedECC, American Geophysical Union (AGU), EOSC, GEO, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ): German publicly funded research center focused on environmental sciences, biodiversity, and integrated earth system analysis. Closely aligned research portfolio, scale, and funding model to CREAF.
• Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry: Germany-based Max Planck institute studying global biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem functioning. Closely aligned on earth observation, ecosystem science, and modeling capabilities with CREAF.
• Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC): U.S. research institute within the Smithsonian conducting long-term ecological research on ecosystems, biodiversity, and global change. Mirrors CREAF's research domains and citizen-science orientation.
• IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis): Austria-based international research organization producing interdisciplinary science on environment, climate, and sustainability for policy use. Comparable international-mandate positioning and public-good funding model.
• IRTA (Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries): Catalan public research institute (also part of the CERCA network) collaborating with CREAF on agricultural and water research. Directly comparable governance, funding, and ecosystem within Catalonia.
• UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH): UK publicly funded center running long-term ecological monitoring, biodiversity, and earth-observation research with comparable institutional structure, scientific output model, and policy-facing mandate.
• European Forest Institute (EFI): Pan-European research organization supporting forest-related policy and research, of which CREAF is an active member. Overlaps on forestry, biodiversity, and ecosystem-service research with a European mandate.

Broad incumbents

• ETH Zurich – Department of Environmental Systems Science: Swiss university department conducting ecological, earth system, and climate research. Comparable research outputs but operating through a university rather than a dedicated public research center.
• CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas): Spain's largest public research body, hosting multiple environmental and ecological institutes with similar funding and governance. Directly comparable in country, mandate, and breadth of ecological research, though much larger and broader than CREAF.
• CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) – Ecology institutes: France's primary national research body with significant environment and ecology units (INEE). Similar public-mandate research role across European environmental science.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CREAF_Ecologia
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/CREAFecologia
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/creaf
• Instagraminstagram.com/creaf_ecologia

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about CREAF