IMT (Institutions Markets Technologies) Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies is an open, competitive graduate school designed to integrate research, education and innovation. It has been recently featured on the pages of the International Herald Tribune and the Financial Time. 

Founded in the city of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy, IMT was founded as independent institution in November 2005 by way of a partnership between four leading Italian universities (Politecnico di Milano, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa, Università di Pisa, Università LUISS Guido Carli, Roma) and the Fondazione Lucchese per l'Alta Formazione e la Ricerca (FLAFR), a private foundation in Lucca which aims to promote social and economic growth in Italy via higher education.

IMT mission is to produce scientific and technological knowledge in areas marked by a lack of technological applications and skilled human capital.

Ph.D. programs and research labs at IMT focus on processes of institutional and technological change, with particular reference to economics, political and social sciences, computer sciences and engineering.

IMT's teaching and working language is English.

Facts at a glance (from IMT's policy).

Mission

IMT is an international graduate school that promotes cutting-edge research in areas with clear practical relevance, contributing to the formation of international professional elites for business and institutions.

Areas of Activity

Research and teaching programs at IMT strike a balance between theoretical rigor and practical relevance. Research and teaching 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).

Organizational Model

IMT is organized around two interdisciplinary research areas: Economics and Institutional Change and 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 teaching, as well as to shape IMT’s intellectual community.

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 also seeks the continuous presence of world-renowned visiting professors to enhance its intellectual community.

Young Research Fellows

IMT is a dynamic center for young researchers. A combination of private and public funds enables IMT to compete on an international level in the attraction of top junior faculty. The School’s selection processes comply with international standards such as the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. Once hired, IMT incentive schemes are designed to promote and reward scientific productivity.

PhD programs

IMT aims to recruit students with high potential in a fast-moving global environment where research institutes and universities compete to attract resources and human capital. To do so, IMT applies international selection standards and seeks candidates from all around the globe. Courses are held exclusively in English and student performance is continually assessed through rigorous evaluation processes.

Meritocracy and student support

To attract the best and brightest, students are selected on merit and offered tuition scholarships, room and board and loans.

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.

Lucca as an innovative cluster

IMT contributes to the development and internationalization of its territory, promoting its valorization and the transfer of research output.

Managerial model

IMT promotes administrative and managerial efficiency by adopting an integrated non-bureaucratic organizational model that is based on the intensive use of information technology and process engineering. The School also implements a model of management by objectives, emphasizing performance assessment and individual responsibility, evaluating professional performances on a regular basis. IMT regulations and incentives wish to promote academic entrepreneurship.