National Research and Development Institute for Soil Science, Agrochemistry and Environment Protection (ICPA)

The objective of ICPA is to generate knowledge on soil, fertilisers and plant nutrition, and to develop technologies and skills to apply that knowledge. The results of public-funded research are normally published as scientific papers. Contract work is reported confidentially to customers, but this may also be published later on agreed terms. Other important outputs include the development of technologies, such as modeling software packages, some of which lead to patents and commercially exploitable products. Advice on policy to Government and Parliamentary Commissions is other facet of ICPA outputs. ICPA develops research and service activities for public sector (ministries, county agencies, Universities, NGOs) and private sector (small and medium companies, farms, industrial units), not only from Romania, but also from other countries. The outputs are generated and provided using the most advanced technology, including friendly visualisation (e.g. dynamic maps on monitor, required maps on plotter) and interactive scenarios based on models integrated in GIS, expert systems and decision support systems. ICPA Computing Centre provides agricultural/environment information services - as the Romanian AGRIS/CARIS Centre in the FAO's AGRIS/CARIS network.