IWW is one of the leading institutes in Germany for applied research in water supply and is an affiliated institute of the University of Duisburg-Essen. IWW conducts research, among other things, on the monitoring and protection of water resources, on drinking water production, treatment of raw, process and waste water, on new treatment materials as well as on holistic and multifactorial assessment methods or decision support tools at the interface between technology, environment, hygiene, toxicology and economics. With a total of about 150 scientific and technical staff, IWW has a competent pool of experts at its disposal. The proposed project is being carried out by the divisions Water Quality (WQ) and Water Resources Management (WR).

As an elementary core task, the organic chemical analysis business unit (division WQ) carries out groundwater, raw water and drinking water analysis in the trace range at a high level and is characterized by its expertise in the development and standardization of new analytical methods.

The expertise of the Business Unit Toxicology and Substance Evaluation (division WR) includes the technology assessment of treatment processes in the drinking and wastewater sector as well as the investigation of drinking water resources such as groundwater and surface water. For this purpose, an extensive in-vitro bioassay battery of mechanism-specific bioassay methods has been established, covering the endpoints of genotoxicity, mutagenicity and endocrine effects.

For decades, the Water Extraction Business Unit (division WR) has been involved in all aspects of groundwater management in research and consulting projects. This includes the recording and assessment of quantity and quality impairments of water and soil as well as the evaluation of organic and inorganic trace substances (input, behavior, fate and toxicological risks in the environment). These expertises have already been successfully applied and further developed in numerous consulting and research projects.