Participants
1) Rudjer Boskovic Institute (http://www.irb.hr)
IRB, founded in 1951 in Zagreb, is the largest multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research institution in Croatia. The Institute has over 800 employees with about 350 senior (PhD) scientists and 200 PhD students.
The basic mission of the Institute is the fundamental research in natural (physics, chemistry, biology and biochemistry), material, biomedical, marine and environmental sciences. Research activities are organized within 12 divisions: Theoretical Physics, Experimental Physics, Materials Physics, Electronics, Physical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Materials Chemistry, Molecular Genetics, Molecular Medicine, Marine Research, Marine and Environmental Research, and Laser and Atomic Research and Development.
The IRB scientists publish on average around 350 journal papers/year in the internationally reviewed journals quoted in Current Contents (CC) secondary database. In parallel with fundamental research, applied research is performed in collaboration with other institutes and industrial units in various branches of production of goods. Co-operation occurs with a number of governmental institutions related to environmental protection, water management and protection, national defense, health care and food production.
Institute includes the largest library for natural sciences in Croatia, a computing centre, animal facilities and a number of state-of-the-art experimental devices. Important aspect of dissemination of knowledge is participation in education at undergraduate and graduate level at the universities of Zagreb, Osijek, Split and Rijeka, supervising BSc, MSc and PhD theses. International co-operation is essential aspect of knowledge dissemination, which enables up-to date research activities.
The biggest IRB unit with more than 100 employees is the Division for Marine and Environmental Research (DMER; http://www.irb.hr/en/str/zimo). DMER was founded in 1969 and its research mission is focused on physico-bio-geochemical processes in surface water and groundwater supplies. Since its foundation fundamental and applied research are going on in parallel, focused on marine, estuarine and freshwater systems. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches are interconnected in research and education, especially in education of young scientists in Oceanology and in Environmental Protection and Nature Conservation.
Long-term research programme, supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, is focused on investigation of the biogeochemical cycles of inorganic and organic constituents and natural characteristics of the Adriatic Sea, estuarine and freshwater systems, evaluation of anthropogenic influence by modeling distribution and behavior of substances and their speciation in water and at natural phase boundaries, and assessment of the impact of inorganic and organic pollution on aquatic organisms and communities (ecological risk assessment) using methodology of exposure and effect biomarkers and monitoring health condition of the aquatic organisms.
2) Norwegian Institute for Water Research (http://www.niva.no)
NIVA will be the responsible institution in Norway, as the NATO country. NIVA is an independent research foundation with totally 220 employees, where the main office is located in Oslo. NIVA is the leading competence centre in Norway regarding water related issues, and the research institute performs research, development and advisory services for the environmental authorities, industry and the public sector in Norway and abroad.
About 30% of NIVA’s projects are being conducted in international projects, giving a solid basis of competence and a network through over 20 EU framework research projects at present and a long standing tradition to provide services for over 70 countries in the world. For this particular initiative, the project will take advantage of NIVA’s broad project experience from Western Balkan and on water resources management and treatment processes.
The NATO Country Project Director will be Dr. Knut-Erik Tollefsen, a registered EuroTox toxicologist with over 10 years experience in ecotoxicology and over twenty peer-reviewed papers in international journals and special publication series.
Dr. Tollefsen is a specialist in development and use of in-vitro bioassays, biomarker research, chemical and effluent toxicity characterisation, and environmental monitoring and is currently managing/participating in several national and international research projects related to environmental monitoring and toxicity characterisation.
Dr. Kevin Thomas has broad experience with different analytical techniques, bioassays, risk assessment and is one of the leading international scientists working in the field of EDA and has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on the subject. Other key research staff such as Dr. Merete Grung, Dr. Kathy Langford and M.Sc. Torsten Källqvist along with the junior research staff at the section for Ecotoxicology and Risk Assessment at NIVA are working routinely with effect-directed monitoring and analysis on different environmental matrices.