Under the auspices of the President of the UOT, Prof. Amin Daway Thamir, the Environmental Research Center held the Scientific Symposium "Research in the face of environmental challenges" on Tuesday 14^th  April 2015 at "Dr. Jassim Hayali Hall". The Symposium was attended by for Prof. Jasim Abdul Aziz Al-Falahi, Deputy of the Minister of Environment for Technical Affairs, Dr. Wisam Hamdan Kazem, UOT Vice President for Scientific Affairs, and number of departments head and UOT faculty. The seminar included three lectures, the first lecture was the environmental situation of the city of Baghdad by Prof. Dr. Jassim Al-Falahi. The second was presented by Professor Dr. Hana Abdul Hussein, from the Diectorate of Research and Development, MOHSR. The third lecture has been presented by Prof. Abdul Hameed Mohammed Jawad, Director of ERC, UOT.

      The center also launched through the symposium an initiative to identify the environmental research trends through the distribution of questionnaires to 160 of environmental experts who attended the symposium to identify priorities for scientific research in the environmental sector for the purpose of directing scientific plans that can be adopted and work by research centers and units with environmental concerns.