The third mission of the Institution includes the production of public assets of a social, cultural and educational nature, aimed at augmenting the well-being and resilience of society. This includes higher education activities in collaboration with universities and national and international research bodies, education and professional qualifications usually carried out in synergy with national and international organisations and public administrations. OGS therefore collaborates with many universities in Italy and abroad in high-level training programmes (summer schools, workshops and specialised courses), doctoral and master programmes, teaching in bachelor and master courses, internships and stages.
Special higher education programmes
Blue Skills: initiatives for a sustainable blue economy
The initiative for a sustainable blue economy in the Mediterranean and Black Sea promoted by OGS is part of the European and international strategies of the United Nations as a contribution to growth.
The main objective of Blue Skills lies in the intention to train a generation of scientists able to face the new climate, economic and environmental challenges. This is foreseen the creation and management of a platform of knowledge and skills on the Blue Economy and by offering suitable opportunities for qualified training that can address the emerging sectors of the Blue Economy (maritime sectors and marine science research - capacity building and skills development) and thus foster employability and positive socio-economic spin-offs on both sides of the Mediterranean.
Among these advanced training opportunities, the main ones dedicated to capacity building of young researchers and professionals in the marine and maritime sectors from the Mediterranean and Black Sea are listed below.
Summer School
Running since 2014, the short advanced training course dedicated to capacity building and skills acquisition as a contribution to a sustainable blue economy in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, is aimed at young researchers and professionals in the "blue" sectors from all over the area. The course takes place in Trieste for one week and offers a multidisciplinary programme on current topics related to the sustainable blue economy, marine sciences and maritime sectors.
Second level University Master
The Advanced Master on Sustainable Blue Growth is a second level university course promoted by OGS in collaboration with the University of Trieste. Active since 2017, it is conducted in English and offers a hybrid modality that develops in three attended modules of two weeks each during the academic year and remotely through a virtual platform. The Master has a faculty of international experts and professors and offers a multidisciplinary programme on current topics related to the sustainable blue economy, marine sciences and maritime sectors.
Scholarships and international mobility
OGS promotes international mobility by encouraging the participation of young researchers and professionals in the fields of the blue economy to events such as conferences, specific workshops or training courses. It also promotes and supports individual mobility, knowledge exchange and circulation of talent by providing grants for research projects or internships through existing cooperation programmes (e.g. TRIL - Training and Research in Italian laboratories in collaboration with the Centre for International Physics, ICTP) or other projects in the framework of transnational partnerships (e.g. the DEEP BLUE project, co-funded by the European Commission DG Mare).
OGS also supports and finances doctoral scholarships related to the topics addressed in collaboration with the University of Trieste and the University of Venice.
By virtue of the impact generated by Blue Skills and the strategic importance of this programme at macro-regional level, it has received the Union for the Mediterranean label in 2019 and the first WestMed award in 2021.
All Blue Skills activities are supported by the Western Mediterranean Geopolitical Forum for Research, Innovation and Higher Education, or the 5+5 Dialogue, and contribute to developing science diplomacy among the countries of the Mediterranean Sea.
All active Blue Skills opportunities are available here.
HPC-TRES: research and training for the study of Earth Sciences
The National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS and CINECA - Interuniversity Consortium are collaborating to set up a training programme in the field of High Performance Computing (HPC) for Earth Sciences applications, called "HPC Training and Research for Earth Sciences" (HPC-TRES). The programme is co-funded by the Ministry for Universities and Research (MUR) through PRACE-iTALY, a special contribution for Italy's participation in activities related to the international infrastructure PRACE - The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe.
The main objectives of the programme are capacity building, the enhancement of human capital, and advanced training in the fields of Earth System modelling (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere) and numerical methods, the latter being considered a strategic transversal component for modelling. Among the activities promoted in the framework of this agreement are the establishment, co-funding and management of training and research awards such as PhD scholarships, research grants or scholarships for masters and specific courses in the field of HPC that contribute to the thematic research lines of the scientific plan of the HPC-TRES programme.
On an annual basis, HPC-TRES co-funds PhD scholarships with a number of Italian universities and scholarships for enrolment in the Master in High Performance Computing (MHPC) co-organised by the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste.
All active HPC-TRES opportunities are available link.
Support for university courses
OGS researchers and technologists teach in several undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Italian and foreign universities.