Numbers
ERC grants awarded since 2007
faculty members has been granted with ERC (highest ratio in Italy)
Scientific areas in which SISSA has scored top results in ANVUR Research Quality Evaluation (VQR)
Departments of Excellence selected in 2018–2022 and 2023–2027
of SISSA’s permanent faculty members are included among the top 2% most-cited scientists by Stanford 2025 survey (highest ratio in Italy)
active research projects every year
EU-funded projects (H2020 & Horizon Europe)
PNRR innovation projects
from national and international competitive grants
SISSA researchers publish in leading peer-reviewed international journals, with an average of almost 800 papers a year. Over the past ten years SISSA scientists have contributed to more than 7,300 publications, many of them written with colleagues from over 400 institutions around the world. The School’s impact matches its output: about 35% of SISSA faculty members appear in the Stanford University ranking of the world’s most-cited scientists. Much of this work comes from projects funded through competitive programs such as the European Research Council (ERC) and Horizon Europe.
SISSA hosts more than 40 independent research groups, each led by an internationally recognised scientist. Every group has a Principal Investigator who sets its research agenda and is free to pursue it. The School follows this model to protect scientific freedom and make room for new ideas. In 2024, projects led by SISSA’s Principal Investigators raised more than 10 million euros in competitive national and international funding. PhD students are full members of these groups. They take an active part in the research and learn how to work as scientists alongside experienced researchers.
Competitive grants are one of the clearest measures of SISSA’s scientific standing. The School has won more than 30 European Research Council (ERC) grants. That comes to one ERC grant for every three faculty members, the highest ratio in Italy. SISSA researchers also regularly win funding from Horizon Europe and from national excellence schemes.
SISSA monitors the quality of its research at several levels. Inside the School, the Research Quality Committee carries out regular self-assessments and asks the international scientific community for feedback. This helps the School measure itself against international standards and keep improving. From outside, SISSA received institutional accreditation from ANVUR, the Italian national agency for the evaluation of universities and research, in 2020. It got top marks for its research strategy, international collaborations and scientific output. The School also tracks its strategic objectives through the Integrated Activity and Organization Plan (PIAO). The plan sets performance indicators and measures progress against them, so the School can base its decisions on reliable data.