The foundation deed defined the tasks of the Institute as advancement of knowledge and transfer of research results in the fields of complex land consolidations, pedology, formation and exploitation of landscape, and informatics related to these fields. The Institute is an artificial person with research including the management of research infrastructure as the main object of its activity. The Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation was established by the Ministry of Agriculture was established on the 1st January 2007 pursuant to Act No. 341/2005 on Public Research Institutions (v.v.i. is the Czech abbreviation for this type of institution) for an indefinite period of time by transformation of the allowance organisation Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation in Prague, which continued the traditions of an institute founded already in 1954. The main activity is science and research in these areas: - methodology for the study of general territorial relations in the framework of soil and water conservation during complex reallocations of land - protection of agricultural soil from erosion - principles of management for the zones of differentiated protection of permanent grasslands in watersheds of water supply reservoirs - agro-engineering erosion control measures - reclamation of lands devastated by the extraction of mineral resources in the North Bohemian Brown Coal Basin - revitalisation of small streams - measures for the runoff regulation in an agricultural watershed - general methodical procedure for optimum management of state owned land - methodology for the calculation of water retention in a watershed during floods - application of an alternative management system of soil and water conservation in landscape - agricultural drainage in cultivated landscape - measures in agricultural landscape for the improvement of water bodies