The Karst Research Institute was established by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1947, based on the Istituto Speleologico Italiano, the Italian Speleology Institute established in Postojna in 1929.

Today, the institute employs 23 people, including geographers, geologists, chemists, biologist and microbiologist.

In its 70 years, the Karst Research Institute has developed into one of the central international research and study centres focused on karst.

"We'll continue to work for better fundamental understanding of karst and for a sustainable development of the study of karst. And of course, we'll work to make the knowledge about karst contribute to a comprehensive and sustainable development of society as much as possible," Slabe told the STA.

The institute is located in Postojna, which is also home to University of Nova Gorica's post-grad studies of karst, carried out in cooperation with the institute. The department is also UNESCO's Chair on Karst Education.

Working closely with colleagues from across the world, Slabe noted that "over the past 20 years we've been especially active in researching the karst in China". "We've managed to put up an international centre for researching karst and a karst environment laboratory there," he added.

The study of karst, which spreads across more than half of Slovenia, around a third of Europe and a fifth of the world's landmass, is one of the few studies that uses Slovenian terminology, as terms for karst phenomena such as ponor are used all around the world.

A ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the institute was also attended by President Borut Pahor.