OGS is characterised by a notable capacity to attract external funds for third-party research activities, for the management of intellectual property, for technology transfer and for relations with the main industrial players, mainly in the sea, energy, environment, security and new technologies sectors.
OGS's activities on behalf of third parties take the form of targeted research or service projects on behalf of public and private entities, supporting research activities on behalf of private companies only when they include important aspects of technological innovation and knowledge advancement.
The services offered by OGS essentially concern:
Use of maritime infrastructures
Maritime infrastructures are used for seabed and subsurface characterisation (seabed mapping), physical, chemical and biological oceanography.
The use of the research vessel Laura Bassi for third-party activities is promoted only in the context of major international projects.
Services in support of marine research
Activities include:
- Characterisation of coastal, lagoon and port environments;
- Marine weather, chemical and biological monitoring;
- Environmental pollution risk assessment and forecasting;
- Assessment of water and sediment quality;
- Assessment of ecosystem functionality;
- Calibration of oceanographic sensors at the OGS Oceanographic Calibration Center (CTMO), the only one operating in this sector in Italy;
- Hydrodynamic modelling of marine areas subject to industrial use (platforms, re-gasification terminals, ports, marinas).
Making available the collection of marine strains
The Collection of Marine Microorganisms (CoSMi) comprises more than one hundred strains of live microorganisms isolated from marine environments and made available for research, industry and education.
The strains are available to companies and research organisations that need marine organisms identified and classified for studies in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic, medical and energy sectors.
Use of geophysical infrastructures for subsurface exploration
The OGS infrastructures are available for applications
- in the field of exploration geophysics, geological confinement of CO2 and geothermal energy;
- for the identification and characterisation of sites suitable for geological containment of CO2;
- for geological characterisation studies to support hazard assessment also for large infrastructural works (pipelines, nuclear power plants, roads, etc.).
Services in the field of applied seismology
The services provided by OGS concern:
- seismic monitoring of industrial plants and support to anti-seismic design;
- implementation and management of seismometric networks for natural and induced seismicity monitoring;
- precision positioning and real-time kinematic positioning (RTK) services using GNSS technologies;
- calibration of vibrating table seismographs at the Centre for Seismological Research;
- seismic microzonation activities;
- assessment of seismogenic potential of on- and offshore faults, seismic hazard assessment for critical infrastructures (pipelines, nuclear power plants, dams, etc.) or for insurance purposes.
OGS also provides gravity acceleration values to metrological laboratories that need the accreditation certificate, i.e. the recognition issued by Accredia.
Environmental research and monitoring services
The activities provided are carried out thanks to the use of aerial surveys or drones with scanning laser integrated with photographs for design and undertaking works, monitoring of damaged areas, surveys of linear and network infrastructures.
Data management, archiving, valorisation and access services
Services for data management, archiving, exploitation and access (oceanographic, geological, geophysical, seismological and geodetic) are provided through the development of a series of thematic infrastructures dedicated to data accessibility and management.