Many economic and environmental policy decisions are based on what is known about the occurrence and distribution of chemical substances in the environment.

We have decades of experience in the detection of target compounds in all environmental matrices. Modern devices and procedures for trace analysis enable us to detect elements and organic compounds at the lowest levels.

For quality assurance we hold accreditations for atomic spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography and sample preparation.

The Fraunhofer IME also maintains the German Federal Environmental Specimen Bank  on behalf of the Federal Environ-mental Agency, and in this context we participate as a central component of the ecological environmental observation programme in Germany.