CREAR – INTERDEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER FOR ALTERNATIVE AND RENEWABLE ENERGIES

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Description and objectives
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The Center was formally established on January 1, 2005, consolidating previous collaborations among members of the various departments of the University of Florence operating in the field of Renewable Energies. The Center has brought together components of the Energetic, Electronic, Chemical, Agroforest, Geological and Economic areas.

The Center was initially constituted by the following Departments (pre-reform): Energy, Chemistry, Economic, Agrarian and Forestry Estimation, Earth Science, Agronomic Sciences and Agro-Forestry Territorial Management, Forest Environmental Sciences and Technologies. In brief time, the Center has grown with the contribution and the adhesion of other Departments, lecturers and researchers also coming from third departments, such as Electronics and Agricultural Biotechnology.

In its current structure, CREAR – promoted by Prof. Francesco Martelli, who is also its Director since its establishment – is made up of the Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), the Department of Management of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Systems (GESAAF), the Department of Agricultural and Food Production Sciences (DISPAA), the “Ugo Schiff” Department of Chemistry, the Department of Earth Sciences (DST) and the Department of Information Engineering.
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Areas of interest
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CREAR aims to:

• participate in a coordinated way in national and international research projects in the field of renewable energy;
• promote, support, coordinate and develop interdisciplinary research activities, as well as training programs in the field of renewable energies, with focus on its engineering, chemical, forestry, geological, economic and sociological aspects;
• promote initiatives of scientific dissemination and interdisciplinary collaboration in the sectors of interest of the Center;
• promote national and international conventions that ensure the realization of the Center’s goals.

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Composition of the Section
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The Center refers to the staff of the University of Florence (professors, researchers and technicians), assisted by PhD students, post-Doc, research grant holders and fixed-term researchers. Other members are funded through specific financed projects. The group counts on ca. 30 staff members, supported by other 20 people among PhD students, post-Docs, research fellows, fixed-term researchers and professional contractors.
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The RE-CORD Research Consortium
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In 2010 the RE-CORD Research Consortium was set up, in the form of a spin-off of CREAR, with the aim of giving greater flexibility to the professional skills acquired in CREAR and expanding its scope. The RE-CORD (Renewable Energy Consortium for Research and Demonstration) combines skills and resources (laboratories and facilities) of all members of the Consortium, thus creating a critical mass able to develop research and activities at the highest scientific and technological level.
In addition to the University of Florence (CREAR), the members of the RE-CORD Consortium are the Azienda Agricola Villa Montepaldi Srl of the University of Florence, Pianvallico SpA, Spike Renewables Srl, ETA REnewable Energies and BioenTech Srl.
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Activities
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• Training activities (PhDs and Masters)
  

The Center has financially supported PhD scholarships and collaborates in the research of PhD students, including them as fundamental elements in the research projects carried out by the Center, mainly within the PhD program in Energetics and then in the Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering.
The Center also manages the IMES Master in Bioenergy and Environment. IMES (now in nine editions) is a First Level University Master born in 2002 from an international collaboration with European and American Universities, as part of a European Project funded by DG Higher Education aimed at EU-US collaboration. The master then continued beyond the duration of the project, involving many of the Center’s colleagues and young Post-doc resources.
Thanks to the extensive experience gained both through the IMES Master and through the university teaching activities and in the field of Education and Training at the European level, CREAR took part in the MC-EnMa Project, currently in its final phase, financed within the TEMPUS program of the European Community. Through this project, a master’s course in Energy Management was established in the three main Libyan Universities with the aim of providing the Libyan University System with the tools to form the new ruling class in the energy field that will have the task of leading the country towards a more sustainable economy able to make the most of its fossil fuel reserves and to exploit its renewable potential.
The Center has participated and contributes together with the Mondeggi Company, to the “Network of Tuscan Poles for the testing and transfer of innovation”.