PANSTWOWY INSTYTUT WETERYNARYJNY - PANSTWOWY INSTYTUT BADAWCZY

Their core work

Poland's National Veterinary Research Institute (PIWet) in Puławy is the country's leading authority on animal disease diagnostics, surveillance, and food safety. They operate high-containment (BSL3) laboratories for studying dangerous zoonotic and epizootic pathogens in farm animals, and serve as a national reference laboratory for veterinary diagnostics. Their work spans from field-level disease detection tools (like rapid biosensor-based swine diagnostics) to large-scale European surveillance programmes for foodborne zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance. They also contribute to pollinator health research and One Health policy, bridging veterinary science with public health.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 work (2016–2017) focused on institutional capacity building and research infrastructure — VET-TWIN aimed to raise their scientific excellence, while VetBioNet connected them to Europe's BSL3 facility network. From 2018 onward, they shifted decisively toward applied disease surveillance and policy-relevant research: One Health EJP, HealthyLivestock, and PoshBee all tackle real-world threats (AMR, zoonoses, pollinator decline) with direct implications for European food systems and public health.

PIWet is moving from a nationally focused veterinary lab toward becoming a European One Health hub — expect future work on AMR, zoonotic preparedness, and integrated animal-human-environment surveillance.

How they like to work

PIWet operates primarily as a specialist partner in large European consortia (5 of 6 projects as participant), with 136 unique partners across 27 countries indicating broad network reach rather than repeated partnerships. Their single coordinator role (VET-TWIN) was a twinning project to strengthen their own capacity, suggesting they use the participant role to contribute deep veterinary diagnostics expertise while learning from leading Western European institutes. They are a reliable domain expert you bring in for animal health and food safety components, not a project management hub.

With 136 unique partners across 27 countries, PIWet has built a remarkably wide European network for an institute of its size — largely through participation in pan-European programmes like One Health EJP and VetBioNet that connect national veterinary reference laboratories across the continent.

What sets them apart

PIWet is Poland's national veterinary reference institute with operational BSL3 containment facilities — a combination of regulatory authority and high-security research infrastructure that few partners can offer. They bridge Eastern European livestock realities (large-scale swine and poultry farming, ASF frontline experience) with Western European research standards. For any consortium needing animal health expertise with direct access to Polish agricultural systems and regulatory data, they are the natural first call.

Highlights from their portfolio

• One Health EJP
  Their largest project (EUR 776K) and a flagship European Joint Programme connecting 40+ institutes on foodborne zoonoses and AMR — positions PIWet at the centre of European One Health policy.
• VET-TWIN
  Their only coordinator role — a strategic twinning project that explicitly aimed to elevate PIWet's research to match top European veterinary institutes.
• SWINOSTICS
  Unusually applied for a research institute: developed field-deployable biosensor diagnostics for African Swine Fever and other swine diseases, directly relevant to Poland's ASF crisis.