Director’s Letter

Research at CIMNE focuses on the development of Numerical Methods in Engineering of interest to the following scientific fields: structural mechanics, geomechanics, fluid dynamics, material sciences, optimization, biomechanics coupled multi-physics processes and high performance computing. Applications include problems in civil, mechanical, aeronautics, naval/marine, biomedical and environmental engineering, energy efficiency and fusion technology, among others.

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Since 1987 CIMNE has evolved to become a prestigious international research centre on NME. Its research staff (90% of whom are engineers) includes (by December 2019) 21 Full Research Professors, 11 Associate Research Professors, 17 Assistant Research Professors, 13 Postdocs, 6 Staff Scientists, 33 PhD Students, 59 Research Engineers, 7 Visiting Researchers and 39 Administration Staff from 27 countries.
Several researchers of CIMNE are faculty members of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and develop their research duties in CIMNE. These distinguished affiliated researchers play an important role as liaison between researchers at different groups of UPC and CIMNE.

Research priorities and applications

The priorities of CIMNE for research excellence target new numerical methods (NM) and software codes to help engineers to better predict, design and optimize systems affecting our lives, including our environment, our security and safety, and the products we use and export. Indeed these goals can only be attempted from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Some relevant problems where the NMs developed at CIMNE are applied include: structural analysis of constructions and vehicles; safety of structures to natural hazards; geotechnical engineering and groundwater flow; oil and gas engineering; thermal-mechanical analysis of structures and mechanical systems; metal forming processes (sheet forming, casting, welding, additive manufacturing, machining, etc.); shape and material optimization; aerodynamics of aircrafts, sail boats and road vehicles; blast, crashworthiness and impact problems; ship hydrodynamics; analysis of coastal and offshore structures; flow of granular materials in the mining, construction, food and pharmaceutical industries and fusion technology, among other applications.

Focus of CIMNE research on territory and sustainability

Since December 2017 CIMNE is under the auspices of the Department of Territory and Sustainability (DTES) of the Catalonian Government. This has strengthened the research activities of CIMNE of interest to the civil and environmental engineering sector with a focus on applications to predictive territory management, smart infrastructures, water resources, energy efficiency, transport and mobility and environmental quality.

Organization of research

Research in CIMNE is structured in Research Challenges (RChs) covering several challenging topics applicable to different engineering disciplines.

Researchers at CIMNE carry out their activity within Research and Technical Development (RTD) Groups managed by a Group Leader. The research activities are coordinated by one or more Principal Investigators (PIs). RTD Groups are gathered in RTD Areas that target fields such as Civil & Mechanical engineering, Transport (naval, aeronautics and land transport), Energy & Environment and Information and Communication Technologies. You can visit the CIMNE RTD Areas and Groups at www.cimne.com/research

International presence

CIMNE has established 2 legal international branches: CIMNE Latin America (Santa Fe, Argentina); and CIMNE USA (Washington DC, USA) and has also set up an international network of Joint Labs (the Aulas CIMNE) with 32 members: 6 in Spain and 26 in Latin America; aulas.cimne.com.
The International Association of the Aulas CIMNE (AIAC), created by CIMNE in 2015, aims to coordinate and foster the activities of the Aulas CIMNE network. More information of AIAC can be found on Alliances Section of this report.

Research outputs

Since 1987 CIMNE researchers have published some 2,700 JCR journal papers, 46 text books, 86 edited books, 271 monographs, 417 RTD reports, 643 technical reports and organized 225 international scientific conferences. CIMNE has 6 patents.
CIMNE

Since 1987 CIMNE researchers have published some 2,700 JCR journal papers, 46 text-books, 86 edited books, 271 monographs, 417 RTD reports, 643 technical reports and organized 225 international scientific conferences. CIMNE has 6 patents.

CIMNE scientists are chief editors or associated editors of 6 international JCR journals and members of the editorial board of 15 JCR journals.

Since 1987 CIMNE researchers have taken part in 1,750 RTD projects, including 11 research projects funded by the European Research Council.

In 2019 CIMNE researchers have taken part in 81 RTD projects funded by international (34 projects) and national (47 projects) organizations which have meant funding of 3,6 M€ for CIMNE. In the same period CIMNE had 139 RTD contracts with companies and private organizations amounting some 3,44 M€, managed 2 international MSc courses, 2 PhD programs and organized an average of 7 short courses and 13 seminars annually. Its research staff has supervised some 190 PhDs and some 756 MSc students.

Research at CIMNE has lead to many software codes that are useful for solving specific problems in each of the engineering areas addressed. The “CIMNE Products” section of this report lists the main software codes developed at CIMNE.

Citation records

By December 2019, CIMNE scientists had an h index of 120 and some 70,000 citations (Source: Google Scholar). Scopus records 553 JCR papers and 4,858 citations for the period 2015-19.
Several CIMNE researchers are ranked in the first positions of the ranking for Mathematics & Interdisciplinary Applications and others of engineering created by Group for the Dissemination of the h Index (further information cimne.com/research-rankings).
By December 2019 the Ranking Web of World Research Centres (research.webometrics.info) reports that 115 CIMNE researchers were among the 60.460 most cited scientists of Spain in terms of citations (webometrics.info/en/GoogleScholar/Spain).

Management of scientific organizations

CIMNE is the permanent Secretariat of the following scientific organizations:

• International Association for Computational Mechanics (iacm.info)
• European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (eccomas.org)
• Spanish Association for Numerical Methods in Engineering (semni.org)
• Pilot Centre of the European Research Community in Flow, Turbulence and Combustion (ercoftac.org)
• Unesco Chair on Numerical Methods in Engineering of UPC (cimne.com/unesco). This is the first UNESCO Chair in the world, created in 1989.

Technology transfer

CIMNE has a vocation for technology transfer. Since 2001 it has launched 20 spin-off companies. These companies market a number of products emanating from CIMNE research. Details of the companies are given in cimne.com/spin-offs and www.cimnetecnologia.com.

Awards to CIMNE and its scientists

Since 1987 CIMNE and its scientists have received some 70 awards by national and international organizations. The total list of CIMNE Awards, and those granted In 2019, can be seen on cimne.com/awards.

Organization of scientific conferences

The organization of international scientific conferences and workshops is a relevant activity of CIMNE research policy. The CIMNE Conference Bureau Dpt. acts as a professional organizer of international events of scientific and technical interest to CIMNE.
Since 1987 CIMNE has organized some 200 international events. In 2019 CIMNE organized 13 international conferences on different topics related to NME. Some 16 events are already planned for the period 2020-21. Details of future and past events can be found in congress.cimne.com.

RTD alliances

CIMNE is a founding partner of the FLUMEN Institute in River Dynamics and Hydraulic Engineering (www.flumen.upc.edu).

In July 2017 CENIT (Centre for Innovation in Transport, cenit.es) merged its current structure into that of CIMNE, thus broadening the scope of the research activities of CIMNE in the field of transport engineering.
CIMNE has established research alliances with numerous prestigious institutions around the world.

A compilation of the most outstanding collaborations can be found in the “Alliances” section of this report.

Dissemination and communication strategy

Dissemination and communication tasks at CIMNE involve various activities to bring the research outcomes to the attention of as many people as possible. Frequent use of social media tools are used for this purpose (Facebook, Twitter, etc).

The Publications Dpt. (cimne.com/publications) of CIMNE publishes research and technical reports, monographs, text and edited books and software codes. The Aulas CIMNE network is also used for dissemination actions.

SCIPEDIA: CIMNE strategy towards the holistic 4.0 open-access science

In March 2016 CIMNE, via its spin-off company Scipedia SL, launched the innovative web platform Scipedia (scipedia.com) with the aim of providing free publishing and Open Access services to disseminate the results of scientific and technical work.

CIMNE selected as a Centre of Excellence Severo Ochoa

In December 2019 CIMNE was selected as one of the “Centres for Excellence Severo Ochoa” accredited by the Spanish State Research Agency, attached to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. The Severo Ochoa Centers are selected on the basis of their excellence on scientific research and technical development activities. This important distinction includes governmental funding to hire some 35 new PhDs and 15 Postdocs for the period 2020-2023. For details see: cimne.com/severo-ochoa and cimne.com/KOM-severo-ochoa

A self-sustained organization

CIMNE has implemented an (almost) self-sustainable financial model with limited annual public funding.
This has been possible by combining public seed funding (mainly from the Government of Catalonia) with income from RTD projects sponsored by public and private organizations, dissemination activities, revenues from its spin-off companies and an efficient management structure. Since 1987, CIMNE’s self-obtained annual income has amounted (in average) to 95% of its total annual budget. Details of the structure of CIMNE funding in 2019 and in recent years can be found on In Number’s section.

I thank CIMNE staff and its many partners and friends in universities, research centres and industry worldwide for their cooperation that contributes to making of CIMNE a centre of reference in its field.