Welcome to the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Studies (IDAEA)
“We care for the water we drink and the air we breathe”

IDAEA is an environmental science institute in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) devoted to the study of the human footprint on the biosphere. Much of our research is centred on two of the great environmental challenges of our time: the cleanliness and availability of water and the quality of air, guided by the principle that our scientific understanding of current threats to global ecosystems is best approached from a holistic, systems-based viewpoint.

Founded in 2008, IDÆA was envisaged as a new multidisciplinary research institute bringing together a wide range of expertise in environmental science and organized under two broad Departments (Environmental Chemistry and Geosciences).

The institute excels at the analysis of organic and inorganic pollutants and their impact on ecosystems, the study and management of water resources, the development of algorithms in chemometrics, and  the study of inhalable particulate matter and toxic gases.

Recently awarded with the distinctive Centre of Excellence “Severo Ochoa” (2020-2023), this distinction shows the high-quality scientific leadership and global impact of the work developed at IDAEA.

In a globalised world, where human society is expanding at an unprecedented, accelerating rate, it is the scientific research like the one developed at IDAEA that can help to analyse the environmental problems, providing hard data for policy making, and offering sustainable and innovative solutions to solve them.

Ethel Eljarrat
Director of IDAEA