Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia (IWRS) has been founded in the early sixties as Water Management Institute. It is a public institution, specialized for water resources management, freshwater and maritime engineering and ecological engineering. IWRS employs a multi – disciplinary group of specialists working on studies, research projects and other technical elements for implementation of the national environmental program and administrative procedures of protection, management and water use.
Institute is a leading professional body for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC), Water Framework Directive (2000/60/ES), Flood Directive (2007/60/EC) and the Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) for the Republic of Slovenia. IWRS has so far managed or participated in water and marine management and other projects and has experience in many European environmental programmes such as LIFE, LIFE+, PHARE and is a partner in the European Topic Centre for Inland, Coastal and Marine Water (ETC/ICM) at the European Environmental Agency (EEA).
IWRS participates in many expert working groups, related to integrated surface water management, organized by European Commission (DG ENV). One of the relevant activities includes work in the EU Task group on Marine litter. IWRS is also intensively involved in marine litter issues as ETC/ICM partner. The work of IWRS includes leading the task on preparation of marine litter indicator and Marine LitterWatch development and promotion. IWRS in collaboration with University of Nova Gorica performed first analysis of microplastic in the Adriatic region for MSFD implementation in 2011. We have gained many experiences also in performing beach litter assessment, since 2007.
Vision of IWRS is to remain the lead research and advisory institution in integrated water planning and common European water policy in the Republic of Slovenia, and will build, with the intention of applying sustainable water management, even stronger connections with related institutions and organisations.
