The Institute has been founded in 1956. It was destined to conduct fundamental research in the area of principles of operation, design, construction and development of machinery for energy conversion in flows. Presently, the investigations are being carried out in the following fields: fluid mechanics, multiphase flows, thermodynamics and heat transfer, plasma physics, laser technique, machine mechanics, tribology and diagnostics of power sector machinery. Apart from the fundamental research, the Institute offers its services in the area of practical engineering applications such as: turbines, pumps and hydro-kinetic couplings, ventilators, marine propellers, solar collectors; their design, calculation and technical expertise; development of unique equipment and apparatus. Disciplines represented at the Institute: - Distributed heat & power generation in a small scale based on renewable resources - CHP technology - Plus energy technologies for private buildings - Energy storage - Photovoltaics - Wind and water turbines - Exploitation and thermal-hydraulic diagnostics of steam turbines - Machine mechanics (computer analysis, vibrations, rotor dynamics, model- base diagnostics, expert systems) - High-temperature gasification and gas/syngas cogeneration - Rotor dynamic modeling, design and testing - Fuel cells and hydrogen/biogas cogeneration - Aerodynamics and aviation, new materials, condition monitoring and smart structures, plasma and laser engineering and small hydro power plants - Smart Grids.