The Institute of Rural Development and Agriculture is located in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It stands out among other institutes for its interdisciplinary approach to the country's rural areas. From the outset, agriculture has been a fragment of a much broader rural context in the Institute's research. Therefore, the Institute brings together specialists from various disciplines: economics, sociology, demography, ethnography, education, geography, etc., whose shared interests focus on rural and agricultural issues. In recent years, the Institute's experts have been employed by numerous international organizations and government institutions .

The Institute was established in 1971 and has been conducting scientific and expert research for 50 years. Among the institutions funding grants obtained by Institute staff are the National Science Centre, the European Commission, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Research results are published in the Institute's quarterly, Wieś i Rolnictwo, and in books, among others.