IHCantabria is a joint research institute that emerged thanks to the collaboration between two institutions: the Universidad de Cantabria and the Government of Cantabria, represented through the Fundación Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de Cantabria.
IHCantabria was created on March 22, 2007, World Water Day, when two research groups from the Advanced School for Civil Engineering at the Universidad de Cantabria, which had been engaged in intensive scientific-technical activity in subjects related to continental and coastal water engineering, combined into one.