Marine and terrestrial biodiversity and environmental sustainability

• Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Marine and terrestrial biodiversity, ecological quality indices, effects of climate change and various natural and anthropic impacts.
• Natural capital and ecosystem services. Evaluation and quantification of ecosystem functions and services.
• Marine biological resources. Fishery and aquaculture in a circular economy perspective.

Monitoring, conservation and environmental remediation

• Assessment and digital cartography of pressures, threats and risks for biodiversity. Analysis, cartography and modelling relative to the floro-vegetational, faunal and microbiological components.
• Biomonitoring of marine environment, marine microbiology and mycology. Tests on marine invertebrates and complex aqueous matrices for the presence and effects of chemicals. Microbial biodiversity with effects on fishing and aquaculture.
• Physical protection of the marine-maritime environment. Dredging, sediment removal and reclamation in ports in biotic and abiotic matrices, origin of sediments, characterization of port water. 

Remediation and improvement of environmental quality

• Bioremediation and biomonitoring using fungi and plants of environments contaminated by heavy metals and/or hydorcarbons, biomonitoring and mitigation of air and soil pollution with nature-based solutions.
• Ecotoxic elements and environmental degradation. Geochemical cartography, release/seizure of ecotoxic elements, identification and quantification of harmful fibrous minerals in excavated rocks as part of monitoring associated with major works.

Life sciences

• Adaptations of organisms to environment. Investigations on the physiological wellbeing of animal and plant, marine and terrestrial organisms, through biomarkers and histological investigations.
• Extraction and evaluation of the effects of bioactive molecules of marine and terrestrial, animal and vegetal origin. 
• Interaction between human health and environmental factors. Basic and applied research for the study of the effects of environmental factors on human health.

Earth's dynamics and evolution

• Geodynamics and tectonics of the Earth and other planets. Origin of oceanic lithosphere, subduction processes, fluid-rock interaction, geodynamic processes of rocky planets and exoplanets.
• Thermal and thermodynamic processes. Geothermal energy and heat flow, internal structure and evolution of submarine volcanoes and hydrothermal systems, thermodynamic and chemical-physical properties of minerals inside the Earth.
• Surface processes and biosphere evolution. Coastal, fluvial and periglacial modelling processes, studies on the morphology and structure of Italian seas and sectors of the Ross Sea for geo-environmental risks, paleontological research applied to paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions.

Geological and geothematic mapping applied to the territory.

• Geological and geomorphological cartography, inventory of landslides, seabed mapping.

Geological and environmental risks

• Seismic surveillance, civil and infrastructure protection. Regional seismic network of northwestern Italy integrated into the surveillance system of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. Microzoning and geological/geotechnical problems related to seismic emergencies.
• Geo-hydrological and coastal risk assessment and monitoring. Response and resilience of the territory to meteorological and hydrological risk, plans for adaptation to climate change, hydraulic regulation and sustainable urban drainage.

• Coastal zone management. Coastal erosion and coastal defense, monitoring, intervention and warning systems, geomorphological and hydrodynamic hazard.

  Multidisciplinary research in Antarctica

• Geology and Geophysics in Antarctica. Tectonics and geodynamics, marine geology, oceanography, solid earth and applied geophysics.