Welcome to the ENKI website. ENKI, o.p.s. is a public benefit corporation dedicated to applied research in the field of solar power and landscape engineering, fish-farming management, water resources management and the use of both natural and constructed wetlands. We also run awareness-raising, educational and innovation programmes related to these issues. Our main aim is to gather, disseminate and put into practice scientific knowledge promoting the development of sustainable environmental management strategies.

Founded in 1997, ENKI owes its name to one of the best known figures of the Sumerian pantheon – the god Enki, the son of the god of heaven, Anu, and the goddess of sea, Nammu. In the mythologies of Sumer, Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Assyria, Enki acts as the wise god of fresh water and education, the patron of craftsmen and artists.

Fig. 1.: The god Enki brings arid land to life with water. The rivers Euphrates and Tigris spring from his shoulders.

ENKI draws on the creative potential, specialist knowledge, engineering experience and management skills of experts from research and engineering institutions, universities, and public administration. Besides devising and implementing projects in the field of pure and applied research, education and awareness raising, ENKI is also involved in development aid projects sponsored by the Czech government. With its pioneering solar engineering programme ENKI was a co-founder of the Třeboň Innovation Center (TIC), a science and research park established in 2003 in Třeboň, South Bohemia. The new TIC premises are equipped with optical rasters and other solar technologies, and a weather station measuring solar radiation – systems that are all subject to constant monitoring. ENKI also carries out environmental documentation and environmental impact assessments, ecological stability studies, ecological audits and expert reports.

Funding
ENKI’s work to date has been funded by grants, programmes and commissions from the following institutions: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Czech Science Foundation, International Development Aid Programmme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the CR, Ministry of the Environment of the CR, Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the CR, Sokolovská uhelná a.s. (Sokolov Mining Company), Ministry for Regional Development of the CR (PHARE and INTERREG III projects).

Partners
ENKI, o.p.s. cooperates with a wide range of partners. In the field of landscape ecology, our key partners are the Institute of Systems Biology and Ecology of the Czech Academy of Sciences http://www.usbe.cas.cz and the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice http://www.zf.jcu.cz. Our ongoing work on solar power applications in biotechnology is conducted jointly with the Institute of Physical Biology of the University of South Bohemia in Nové Hrady http://www.greentech.cz/ufb/about/index_cz.html. One result of this partnership has been the opening of a new biotechnology hall. Our main partner in reservoirs renewal and fish management projects is the Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the CR; we also work closely with the Austrian Federal Institute for Water Research and Fishery. The Fingerponds project, part of the Czech International Development Aid programme, is carried out together with the Dutch UNESCO-IHE (Institute for Water Education, http://www.ihe.nl/vmp/articles/contentsHomePage.html. A regular partner in our awareness-raising and educational work is the EUREGIO-Silva Nortica agency http://www.ersn.cz/.

Fig. 2.: Seat of the company ENKI, o.p.s. in Třeboň