The Institute's activity is centred on working out alternative concepts of rural development. Additionally, the Institute deals with evaluating contemporary socio-economic transformation processes in rural areas and preparing related expert opinions. In the years 2001-2004 the Institute implemented the research programme entitled Determinants and Directions of Socio-Economic Change in Rural Areas. The programme now implemented, scheduled for the years 2005-2008, is entitled Polish Rural Areas and Agriculture in the European Union. Dilemmas and Directions of Change. The Institute's work is centred on:
- main mechanisms and dilemmas of agricultural and rural development as a basis for formulating long- and medium-term development strategies;
- economic and social consequences of the process of integrating Polish rural areas with the European Union;
- changes in human, social and cultural capital of rural Poland;
- the process of economic diversification of rural areas;
- aspirations of the young rural generation and the potential for satisfying them through the educational system;
- sustainable (social and economic) development of rural areas;
- the development of local communities' subjectivity, self-government and social activity; the system of non-governmental initiatives and institutions;
- the problem of economic and social cohesion; mechanisms of the emergence of development disparities and ways to reduce them.
- The Institute carries out a number of detailed research projects related to the development of rural entrepreneurship, economic stimulation of rural areas, rural education, infrastructure, sustainable rural and agricultural development, rural institutions, rural labour resources, rural unemployment, rural poverty, rural tourism, changes in the structure of farms, rural leaders, rural "problem areas", integration with the European Union, etc.
