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IMT in a Nutshell
About IMT


Mission and Policy

IMT − Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca was founded by University Luiss Guido Carli (Rome), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa), Politecnico di Milano, University of Pisa jointly with the Lucca Foundation for Higher Education and Research (FLAFR).

IMT is designed around two multidisciplinary research areas and aims to strike a balance between research and education, promoting Ph.D. Programs with practical relevance in the fields of social and economic sciences, management, industrial and information technologies, with special reference to processes of technological and institutional innovation, constantly attracting young researchers and professors of high international qualification to Lucca.

IMT has the following main aims:
  • to qualify as an international research center that promotes cutting-edge research in areas, structuring Ph.D. Programs in close connection to research activity, contributing to the formation of international professional elites for business and institutions and promoting the collaboration with other institutions, universities and research centers which share its vision;
  • attract bright students, young researchers and professors through competitive international selection;
  • contribute to economic and social development.
IMT has been accredited by ISSNAF − The Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation − a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting R&D interaction among those Italians active in North-American and Italian Academic and non−Academic Institutions, in the fields of Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Information technology, Mathematics Physics and Chemistry, Medicine and Biology, Earth and Environmental sciences, Economics and Social sciences.

IMT Policy
  1. Mission − IMT is an international graduate school that promotes frontier research, contributing to educate international professional elites for business and institutions.
  2. Areas of Activity − Research and education programs at IMT strike a balance between theoretical rigor and practical relevance. Research and teaching programs focus on institutional and technological change, the role of organizations and markets in economic systems, the analysis of complex systems in social sciences, computer science and engineering (Sciences of the Artificial).
  3. Organizational Model − IMT is organized around two multidisciplinary research areas: Economics and Institutional Change, Computer Science and Applications. The research areas are the natural environment for the selection of researchers and scholars and they are meant to foster the School's Ph.D. programs, to integrate research and education, as well as to build IMT intellectual community.
  4. Research Standards − Research at IMT aims to push the frontiers of knowledge. Researchers are selected through competitive international processes and evaluated based on their publication records in internationally recognized peer reviewed and high impact factor journals. IMT seeks the continual presence of world-renowned visiting professors to enhance its intellectual community.
  5. Assistant Professors, Post Doctoral Fellows − IMT is a dynamic centre for young talented scholars. A combination of private and public funds enables IMT to attract top level Assistant Professors and Post Doctoral fellows. Competitive international selections comply with international standards including the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. IMT incentive schemes are designed to reward scientific productivity.
  6. Ph.D. Programs − IMT recruits students with high potential in a fast-moving global environment where research institutes and universities compete to attract resources and human capital. IMT uses international selection standards and seeks candidates from all around the globe. Courses are held in English and student curricula and performance is assessed through rigorous evaluation processes.
  7. Meritocracy and Students Support − To attract the best and brightest, students are selected on merit and offered tuition scholarships, room, board, and loans.
  8. Campus − Interaction between scholars and students generates a vibrant intellectual community, which benefits greatly from the campus system and residential services provided by the Lucca Foundation for Higher Education and Research.
  9. Lucca as an Innovative Cluster − IMT contributes to the development and internationalization of its territory, promoting human capital mobility and the transfer of research output.
  10. Managerial Model − IMT promotes administrative and managerial efficiency. The School has adopted an integrated, non-bureaucratic, organizational model, which is based on the intensive use of information and communication technologies and of process engineering. The School implements a model of management by objectives, promoting performance assessment and individual responsibility. Job performance is routinely and rigorously evaluated. IMT regulations create incentives that promote academic entrepreneurship.

Research Areas, Ph.D. Programs and Faculty

IMT promotes the integration of research and Ph.D. Programs.

Research Areas

Two multidisciplinary Research Areas constitute the core of IMT organizational model and intellectual environment: Study programs at IMT are deeply embedded into the Research Areas. Research Areas promote initiatives relevant to more than one Ph.D. Program.

The Research Areas have been designed with the contribution of two Scientific Advisory Boards.
  • The Research Area in Economics and Institutional Change aims at integrating multiple perspectives and methodological orientations to deal with processes of institutional change in economic, social, and political systems. The functioning of markets and industries, key issues in political economics, patterns of economic growth, as well as the structure of political processes and the architecture and dynamics of democratic institutions are among the key objects of investigation.
  • The Research Area in Computer Science and Applications is currently designed around the two main fields of investigation of Computer Architectures and Networking and Software Systems for Global Computing. Researchers and Ph.D. students are working on both theoretical and applied problems in the area of networks, covering the architectural dimensions as well as the computational and semantic ones.

Current Faculty

IMT resident faculty is structured as follows:
  • Professors. mainly tenured, both associate and full. IMT's first recruitment procedure for tenured professors was launched in Fall 2008, check the "professor vacancies" page for details.
  • Assistant Professors and Post−Doctoral Fellows. They are mainly engaged in research and teaching activity in Ph.D. programs. They are also actively involved in the supervision of Ph.D. students, assuring continuous participation in the School activities. They are recruited through international competitive selection procedures (Assistant Professor and Post−doctoral Fellow recruitment program)
  • Visiting Professors, IMT seeks the continual presence of renowned Visiting Professors to enhance its intellectual community. Visiting Professors carry out research within the Research Areas, and supervising/teaching activity within the Ph.D. Programs. Typically, Italian visiting professors have a one-year contract for part-time activity at IMT, while foreign visiting professors spend at least one month per year at IMT.
  • Research Assistants: Research Assistants are assigned the collaboration/assistance in research.
In addition to resident faculty, IMT faculty is extended to external scholars who collaborate with the school on regular basis: All are involved in PH.D student supervision.

Ph.D. Programs

IMT Ph.D. Programs, a natural outgrowth of the Research Areas, are taught in English.
  • The Program in Computer Science and Engineering aims to educate researchers and professionals with broad training in the foundations of informatics as well as applications to a variety of cutting-edge systems and disciplines.
  • The Program in Economics, Markets, Institutions aims at dealing with issues in political economy, applied public economics, the functioning of industries and markets, the impact of macroeconomics on productivity and growth, with a strong integration of theoretical, technical and practical expertise, to educate highly qualified professionals, who analyze, plan, and manage concrete interventions of political economy.
  • The Program in Management and Development of Cultural Heritage aims at concentrating in a consistent educational course, the know-how necessary to researchers and professionals involved at the highest levels of management of culture. The Ph.D. Program's main core is constituted by disciplines as Economics, Management, History and Art History, Legislation on Cultural Heritage, plus elements of material sciences, related to the field of restoration and analysis of materials.
  • The main goal of the Program in Political Systems and Institutional Change is to educate analysts holding deep and up-to-date knowledge in political and institutional theory, comparative law, political economy, able to plan and manage complex programs and projects.
Students play an active role within the School research projects, they are encouraged in being creative in problem solving, benefit from study periods abroad in companies and institutions.

Ph.D. Programs are organized over a 3-year periods:
  • I year: in-depth study through educational and seminar activities, to education intersecting research activity and to the focusing on the research fields the student will concentrate on in the following years;
  • II year: completion of the educational path research, period abroad in international universities and research centers;
  • III year: thesis.

Organization Model: The Sciences of the Artificial
Integration between Research and Teaching

The scientific identity of the School is defined in a process of co-evolution between Research Areas and Ph.D. Programs.

The Faculty is recruited within the Research Areas.
Organizational Model
Research and Ph.D. Programs at IMT strike a balance between theoretical rigor and practical relevance. Research and teaching programs focus on institutional and technological change, the role of organizations and markets in economic systems, the analysis of complex systems in social sciences, computer science and engineering (Sciences of the Artificial).

Campus

The campus is an essential element of IMT structure. Buildings and Research Infrastructure have been set up by the Lucca Foundation for Higher Education and Research:
  • San Micheletto, a monastery completely renovated, is the structure where classrooms are located, as well as the Ph.D. administrative office. In this same complex there are IMT guest quarters, 13 private rooms, designed as housing for visiting professors and research fellows.
  • The building known as Ex Boccherini, accommodating the Administration, as well as visiting and resident scholars.
  • The Church of San Ponziano houses the library, as well as offices of researchers and professors are located, as well as additional student workspaces. The library has been designed in order to make the most of the potentialities of the communication and digitalization technologies, particularly realizing a platform of online-consultable reviews (both current issues and series).
  • The Stecca building provides housing for students, student services and the School canteen.

Governance and Governing Bodies


IMT is run by: The Academic Council, a consultative body, has been established with competencies in educational and scientific fields, according to the Statute. The Academic Council is composed of faculty members. It will be actually constituted when the first 5 tenured professors will be recruited (check professor vacancies pages for tenured faculty recruitment program).

FLAFR participates to the school's development by:
  • providing research, teaching and residential facilities and services;
  • financing the attraction of qualified human capital in research.

Governing Bodies

Executive Council
Fabio Pammolli President Direttore IMT Lucca, Università di Firenze
Stefano Baccelli Presidente della Provincia di Lucca Rappresentante della Fondazione Lucchese per l'Alta Formazione e la Ricerca
Giulio Ballio Rettore del Politecnico di Milano Rappresentante del Politecnico di Milano
Giovanni Cattani Presidente della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Rappresentante della Fondazione Lucchese per l'Alta Formazione e la Ricerca
Massimo Egidi Rettore dell'Università LUISS Guido Carli Rappresentante dell'Università LUISS Guido Carli
Mauro Favilla Sindaco del Commune di Lucca Rappresentante della Fondazione Lucchese per l'Alta Formazione e la Ricerca
Claudio Guerrieri Presidente della Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Lucca Rappresentante della Fondazione Lucchese per l'Alta Formazione e la Ricerca
Nicola Lattanzi Vicepresidente dell'Associazione degli Industriali della Provincia di Lucca Rappresentante della Fondazione Lucchese per l'Alta Formazione e la Ricerca
Alberto Meomartini Presidente di Assolombarda e Snam rete Gas Designato congiuntamente dai Rettori delle università: Politecnico di Milano, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Luiss Guido Carli, Università di Pisa
Marco Pasquali Rettore dell'Università di Pisa Rappresentante dell'Università di Pisa
Gianfelice Rocca Presidente del Gruppo Techint e Vicepresidente per l'Education di Confindustria Designato congiuntamente dai Rettori delle università: Politecnico di Milano, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Luiss Guido Carli, Università di Pisa
Florenzo Storelli Consigliere della Banca del Monte di Lucca Rappresentante della Fondazione Lucchese per l'Alta Formazione e la Ricerca
Maria Chiara Carrozza Direttore della Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Rappresentante della Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
Director
Fabio Pammolli University of Florence (on leave)
Deputy Director
Ugo Montanari University of Pisa
Assessment Board (Nucleo di Valutazione)
Romano Lazzeroni President of Assessment Board University of Pisa - Accademico dei Lincei
Roberto Camisi Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Craft Trade and Agriculture of Lucca
Laura Pedron Politecnico di Torino
Anna Santovito University of Florence
Vittorio Armani Lucca Industrial Association
Audit Committee (Collegio dei Revisori)
Ugo Fava President of Audit Committee University of Pisa/Business Consultant
Mariangela Mazzaglia Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research
Speranzina De Matteo Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance
IMT policy
IMT Policy - English version   IMT Policy - Italian version  PDF (28 Kb)
IMT Policy for Recruitment of Tenured Faculty
IMT Policy for Recruitment of Tenured Faculty - English version   IMT Policy for Recruitment of Tenured Faculty - Italian version  PDF (35 Kb)
IMT Research Areas
Computer Science and Applications - IMT Research Area
IMT Research Areas
ISSNAF