Regeneration is the backbone of the second issue of CICLES, CREAF’s annual report

CREAF publishes today its 2024 annual report, in its magazine format CICLES – Regeneration, the second issue of this publication launched in 2023 to offer a more readable, visual, and impactful alternative to a conventional annual report. Like the first issue, this magazine highlights research, centre management, the daily challenges we face, and the achievements and lessons that help grow our community.

Each year, CICLES focuses on a central theme, and for 2024 the chosen concept is regeneration. Choosing this word was no coincidence: Catalonia is recovering from one of the longest and most intense droughts on record, and although forests are starting to regenerate parts of their canopies, the effects of the prolonged drought are still visible. Many animal communities are also recovering slowly. Regeneration is a word that brings hope, much needed in today’s times. This year, we also celebrate the approval of the EU Restoration Regulation, which could slow down and even reverse this decline if applied properly.

For CREAF, 2024 has also been a year of internal regeneration. We renewed our Strategic Plan to increase research excellence and impact, talent management, and the centre’s sustainability. We also renewed the Severo Ochoa award, reinforcing transformative research to ensure ecosystem resilience and its contribution to human well-being, as well as the European human resources strategy (HRS4R) and the CoARA plan, to improve research management and evaluation in a more fair and transparent way.

In CICLES, you will discover our transformative projects, new unique infrastructures, such as X-ray equipment and the dendrochronology laboratory, new departments like knowledge management and science for public policy, and meet the protagonist of CREAF’s new spin-off, Mariona Ferrándiz.

You will also find opinion pieces by our in-house experts, such as Yolanda Melero, Estefania Muñoz, Miquel de Càceres, and Zhenhong Hu, as well as interviews with Maribel Corral and the post-award project management team, providing a complete view of the centre’s daily life. The magazine is also full of photographs capturing fieldwork and the happiness of CREAF staff working in nature, thanks in part to the efforts of Galdric Mossoll.

The CREAF 2024 annual report showcases the results of a year of intensive work and reflects the dedication of an extraordinary, creative, and committed community engaged in research and nature protection.