Since its establishment, the IRISS could count on three macro-competences linked to the researchers’ backgrounds and as many macro thematic areas, downstream of which the researchers’ activities are developed with a multidisciplinary approach:

• Macro competence in economics and business – coming from IRAT
  Thematic area: Innovation and competitive advantage
• Urban and territorial macro competence – from IPIGET
  Thematic area: Sustainable spatial planning and management
• Macro competence in international law – coming from ISGI
  Thematic area: Migration and development

“Innovation and competitive advantage” has retained its title and broadened the original themes of investigation, remaining the main field of action also in terms of the resources involved. Innovation is seen as the “creative” capacity to produce ideas that go beyond pre-existing schemes, are translated into rigorous scientific pathways, and generate results that can be transferred to the productive economic system, with particular attention to businesses in southern Italy.

The second strand on territorial and urban planning has been entitled “Place-based strategies and policies for local development“, with a focus on urban regeneration. The latter is understood as functional redevelopment accompanied by social recovery, in different territorial scenarios, not only as support for decision-makers but by promoting the involvement and activation of grassroots local communities.

The third strand “Migration and development” investigates, from an internationalist legal perspective, global migration phenomena, relating them to both global and local scenarios. The methodological elaboration is applied in destination countries such as Italy and in countries of origin of migration flows, as a support to decision-makers and operators of self-centred development processes and for the generation of economic, social and cultural value.