The Resource Management Agency (RMA) was established in 1999. The RMA is an organisation whose work is focused on the investigation of scientific methods contributing to the resource management. These methods are transferred and applied in the practice in co-operation with private companies and public administration. The RMA aims at providing for the management of the anthropogenic regional metabolism according to the criteria of long-term sustainability and of minimisation of resource depletion. Resource management is applied in practice by means of projects carried out in co-operations mentioned. The knowledge obtained in the projects carried out may itself initiate further research activities. The staff members are working in the fields: wastes and materials management. Project management and environmental engineering are additional spheres of work.

RMA acts from two locations, in Vienna and in Villach (Carinthia), with a permanent staff of 8 employees and 3 employees on a base of contracts for work and labour. The staff members work in the fields: regional and corporate material flow analyses, solid waste and wastewater management, sustainable urban and regional development, sustainable construction and nutrition ecology.

The members of the board of directors of the RMA are also welcome guest lecturers at the Vienna University of Technology (Institute for Architecture, Structural Engineering, subject "Ecology of material structures"), at the Advanced Technical College Carinthia (study course Structural Engineering, subjects "Construction Ecology and Construction Biology", "Sustainability and Technological Impact Assessment" as well as "Waste Management"), and at the Advanced Technical College Wiener Neustadt, location Wieselburg, (study course Product Marketing & Project Management; subject "Resource Management"). These courses offer a targeted possibility for dissemination of the results and the conclusions of the FORWAST project.

The RMA has contacts with several other universities in Europe (EAWAG/ETH, Switzerland; TEMA, Sweden; CML, The Netherlands), and overseas (University of New South Wales, Australia) and focuses on the following research priorities:

Waste Management:

	Design and implementation of enterprise/local/regional concepts in the sectors Waste Management, Efficient Resource Utilisation and Sustainable Development;
	Methods to control and optimise waste disposal technologies and integrated waste management systems;
	Development of forecasting and evaluation scenarios of long-term implications by waste- and environmentally relevant measures with respect to resource and environmental protection.
	Development of monitoring systems and accompanying consultancy of waste management projects.

Metabolism of the Anthroposphere - Resource Management:

	Development and implementation of methods for regional materials accounting systems;
	Studies on the regional, and in particular on the urban metabolism;
	Development of control mechanisms for regional material metabolism in view of long-term environmental compatibility and optimum resource utilisation;
	Relevance of Waste Management for substance fluxes passing from the anthroposphere to the environment.