Institute of Complex Systems /ICS/, Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice was founded in 2011 as a result of the division of the Institute of Physical Biology, University of South Bohemia. The newly constituted ICS became part of the Faculty of Fishery and Protection of Waters when it participated in foundation and formation of the research centre CENAKVA under the RDI program of the EU structural funds.  ICS studies complex systems, i.e. those systems whose properties cannot be predicted from the properties of their components. Typical complex systems are societies, for example, fish schools or animal groups, living organisms themselves, living cells or chemical self-organised structures and materials.

ICS consists of two laboratories, the Laboratory of experimental complex systems and the Laboratory of signal and image analysis.

The research in the field of optoelectronics is focused on the development of methods of analysis of images captured by the digital camera and on the superresolution microscopy images for applications in cell biology and analysis of nanostructured materials. The common methodical problem in both research theme is the solution of the inverse problem, i.e. finding the relation between the digital image and the original shape of the observed object. To solve the inverse problem, the combination of the mechanical measurement and the computer analysis of the primary signal from the digital camera is used. For mechanical measurement in the microworld, the atomic force microscopy is used.

ICS collaborates with academic institutions and commercial companies in the field of optomechanics, digital camera development, biology, medicine as well as the security applications.