The ISWR department of Thermi-Thessaloniki (former Soil Science Institute of Thermi-Thessaloniki) has a long history of research activities on soil and water management and focuses on applied research, services, state-of-the-art technologies and consultancy to farmers, public authorities and stakeholders. The permanent personnel of the institute consists of 8 Researchers, 6 scientists, 2 technicians and 4 administrative employees. The institute owns a) a fully operational laboratory for soil, water and plant tissue analysis, b) 40 ha of experimental fields including greenhouses and other experimental infrastructure located inside the Hellenic Agricultural Farm of Thermi-Thessaloniki, c) a natural sewage treatment system of 4 ha coverage, which is among the larger pilot experimental systems in Europe. The institute provides full support and consultancy to individual farmers and farmers' cooperatives for issues related to fertility assessment and fertilization design while it has a strong cooperation with public bodies and stakeholders for the implementation of local, national and european projects.
​The research activities of the institute cover the following topics:
- Monitoring and analysis of chemical properties of soil, water and plant tissue
- Monitoring and analysis of physical-hydraulic soil properties
- Soil mapping
- Remedation technologies of problematic soils and design of best management practices (BMPs) in agriculture
- Soil quality indicators, plant nutrition, fertility assessment and fertilization design 
- Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing technologies in agriculture
- Precision agriculture
- Waste water and sewage/sludge treatment using natural systems
- Re-use of treated waste waters and sludge in agriculture
- Hydrobiology of rivers and lakes
- Irrigation and drainage systems
- Hydrology at watershed and field scale
- Hydroclimatology-agrometeorology and climate change effects on agriculture
- Analysis and assessment of Ecosystem Services of agricultural lands
- Development and application of environmental software packages