According to the guidelines provided by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR), the Public Engagement is defined as the openness of the universities towards society, companies and territory.

The majority of the Public Engagement activities are carried out by the departments, especially in the fields of technology transfer and knowledge dissemination directed towards the territory, companies and stakeholders.

The Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences (DISTAV) has intrinsically a close relationship with the territory at all scales (local, national and international) and is aware of the importance of enhancing actions addressing the sustainable economic and social development of the community. 

The department connects basic and applied research to themes that involve society towards sustainable development goals (e.g., mitigation of the impact of anthropic activities on the environment, energy saving, use of renewable energy sources, environmental monitoring and remediation, biodiversity safeguard), individual and collective well-being (e.g., nutrition and health protection) and cultural development.
This is pursued following a holistic strategy which integrates the terrestrial and marine environment, man and nature and involves the three fundamental elements of the department, namely Earth, Environment and Life.

DISTAV is also strongly involved in the didactic, research and third mission activities of the Service Center for Western Liguria, with particular attention to the Hanbury Botanical Gardens (https://giardinihanbury.com/).