REFERENCE PERSON

Tomasz Staszewski

WORKING TEAM

Piotr Kubiesa, Włodzimierz Łukasik

Since 1999 Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU) is a research and development unit acting under the Polish Ministry of Environment. The Institute was established in 1972 as a Katowice Branch of the Institute of Environmental Protection with the status of Environmental Protection Centre. IETU has been functioning as an independent organisation under its present name since 1992. The goal of the scientific and research activities of the Institute is to develop the scientific basis for policies and strategies aimed at sustainable development of the environment of urbanised and industrialised areas.

IETU staff consists of 96 members including 58 scientists. IETU expertise comprises development of emissions inventories, GIS and modeling of air and water contaminants flows, various aspects of urban environment: nature protection and  ecological functions, waste management, wastewater treatment, individual consumption patterns and environmental technologies. For the nineties IETU has been involved in forest monitoring. IETU is engaged in work in 20 sites  belonging to the Level II ICP Forests, particularly in spruce and pine tree stands of Polish National Parks and Forest Promotion Copmlexes.

IETU has been actively co-operating with R&D units, academia and governmental bodies at home and internationally, participating in over 30 international projects including FP4, FP5, FP6 and FP7 as well as CIP IEE, Interreg, LIFE+. IETU provides services and expertise to national regulators but also cooperates with businesses, R&D units and academia.

Being key partner to the Ministry of Environment in the implementation of the  Environmental Technologies Action Plan in Poland, the Institute is active in coordination and support actions aimed at facilitating the cooperation between research and businesses in the area of eco-innovation. Since 2005 IETU has been coordinating the International Scientific Thematic Network on Environmental Technologies ENVITECH-Net (over 60 organisations) as well as the Polish Platform on Environmental Technologies (over 100 member organisations). Under the activities of the platform IETU cooperates with enterprises to establish projects aimed at boosting eco-innovation in Poland as well as  setting a common vision for the sector of environmental technologies in Poland. Moreover, IETU is member of the following networks: A Network for Industrially Contaminated Land in Europe – NICOLE; Academic Network for Contaminated Land Research in Europe ANCORE; International Network for Problems of Air Pollution and Climate Change – AIRCLIM-Net; ALTER-Net – A Long-Term Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Awareness Research Network