The research structures of the Campus of International Excellence Southern Catalonia (CEICS) in the area of chemistry and energy have their roots in the university and have continued growing with the creation of research institutes, which have been key to the development and promotion of research in the area. The URV now has approximately twenty groups focusing on research into chemical engineering and analytical, organic, inorganic and computational chemistry as well as applied physics and biochemistry. Furthermore, a research centre for materials engineering and micro-nano systems, EMaS, comprises five additional groups. The scientific production of the university exceeds 250 articles per year published in specialist chemistry and energy books and journals - and that figure rises considerably with the inclusion of articles published by the research institutes.

ICIQ, a key component of the Science and Technology Park

Since 2004, research into the fields of chemistry and energy has been reinforced with the establishment of the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), an international benchmark centre with three main lines of research: catalysis, supramolecular chemistry and renewable energies. It is made up of 18 research groups and is located on the Sescelades Campus, close to the URV's Faculty of Chemistry and School of Chemical Engineering. It is one of the key components of the Tarragona Science and Technology Park, a research and knowledge transfer complex where the interests of the university, research centres and research institutes and businesses come together.

Research into renewable energies at the IREC

One of the campus's main pillars of research is located in the main building of the Science and Technology Park on the Sescelades Campus: IREC, the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research, specializing in renewable energies. The institute's main offices in Tarragona focus on technological research into bioenergy and biofuels and marine wind power projects.

Tarragona is the wind power factory of Catalonia - accommodating half of the operating, authorized or planned wind farms in the autonomous community.

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