DREAM is a competitiveness cluster dedicated to water and natural environments. It results from the fusion of two clusters from France’s Region Centre: ResoNat, which gathered research and educational institutions in the fields of observation, protection and remediation of natural resources, and DREAM, which gathered companies operating in the environmental market and/or using natural resources such as ground, water, forests and biodiversity.
The cluster’s main topics of interest are the following:
- Sustainable use and management of soils and aquatic surfaces;
- Sustainable exploitation and management of groundwaters (including geothermal energy);
- Optimization of agricultural, forestry and industrial uses of water resources;
- Technologies for water supply and sanitation suitable to rural areas and developing countries.
Therefore, research projects and platforms are dealing with integrated water management and sanitation, phytoremediation and plant engineering, rainfall simulation under controlled conditions, biogeochemistry (for the treatment of polluted areas and soils), geothermal heat exchangers, analysis of mineral materials and organic matter from rocks and soils, as well as metrology and geographic information systems (GIS).
The DREAM cluster should contribute to the development and competitiveness of ecotechnology companies located in Region Centre and devoted to water and natural environments. This will happen through innovation, development of public and private research, as well as technology transfer to developing countries.
Stakeholders from the private sector include Geo-Hyd, Suez Environment, EDF, DSA Technologies, Eco-Research, and LVMH, while stakeholders from the public and parastatal sectors include the Universities of Orléans and Tours, their engineering schools Polytech’Orléans and Polytech’Tours, École Nationale d’Applications pour les Géosciences (ENAG), BRGM, INRA Orléans, France’s national scientific research center (CNRS), the Regional Chamber of Agriculture, Cemagref, National Forest Inventory, Tour(s)plus, the urban community Orléans Val de Loire, Orléans city and the departmental councils in Loiret and Eure-et-Loir.