Institute for Environment and Sustainability

The Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) is a specialised institute of the Joint Research Centre directorate of the European Commission, based in Ispra, Italy. Its mission is to provide scientific and technical support to EU policies for the protection of the environment contributing to sustainable development in Europe.

Research activities

The IES carries out research to understand, monitor and anticipate the complex interactions between human activity and the natural environment, in order to support the development and implementation of policies that protect the global environment and ensure that strategic resources (water, land, forests, food, minerals) are managed in a more sustainable manner for the benefit of present and future generations.The research activities of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability are distributed amongst eight Scientific Units:

  • Water Resources Unit
  • Air and Climate Unit
  • Forest Resources and Climate Unit
  • Monitoring Agricultural Resources Unit
  • Land Resource Management Unit
  • Digital Earth & Reference Data Unit
  • Climate Risk Management Unit
  • Sustainability Assessment Unit


External links