The Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development (DDNI) was established in 1970 and its main objective is conducting fundamental and applied research for scientific support of the management of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (DDBR) and other wetland areas of national and international interest, with particular focus on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

The main object of activity includes research - development in following fields: ecology and protection of the marine environment, oceanography, marine engineering, resource management; research on the structure, functioning, evolution, modification, modeling of marine ecosystems; ecological productivity; technologies and solutions to prevent coastal erosion; ecological rehabilitation and recovery; investigation of the marine environment; aquaculture and resource industrialization; fishing. The Institute is also conducting research regarding the making of equipment for exploration and capitalization of resources.

The Institute is conducting complex geophysical research in geodynamically active areas, with a special emphasis on the Vrancea seismogenic area

The Institute of Geography, located in Bucharest, with two branches (in Cluj-Napoca and Iaşi), is the main institution of fundamental and applied geographical research in Romania. It carries out integrated research in Geomorphology, Hydrology, Biogeography, Climatology, GIS Systems, Human Geography and Environmental Geography focusing on investigating the relationships between the components of the physical and biotic environment (relief, water, soil, vegetation and fauna) and of the social and economic milieu, as well as their spatial distribution in connection with global environmental change.

The "Emil Racovita" Institute of Speleology, the first one in the world dedicated to the research of caves, was founded in 1920 by the enterprising and well-known scientist Emil Racovita (1868-1947) who was a biologist, a polar explorer and a pioneer of the Biospeleology. In the next decades, to the extensive biospeleological research schedule initially conceived by Emil Racovita in order to get an accurate reconstitution of the subterranean realm, natural history, physical speleology and paleontology studies have been added. Nowadays, organized under the patronage of the Romanian Academy, the "Emil Racovita" Institute of Speleology comprises five departments involved in specific research trends and programmes: Biospeleology and Karst Edaphobiology; Geospeleology and Paleontology; Karstonomy, Karst Inventory and Protection; Hydrogeochemistry.