The IMT School was founded on November 18, 2005 as a doctoral school that integrates teaching and research. Its core was formed by a selected international community of professors, researchers and students working in the historic center of Lucca, within its evocative medieval walls. It is now one of the seven Schools of Excellence in Italy.

The IMT School was ranked among the highest of the top graduate schools in Europe, according to the most recent U-Multirank survey, and received excellent results in the last Research Quality Assessment exercise carried out by ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes), where the School ranked second nationally in Areas 02 (Physics), 11b (Psychological Science), 13a (Economics and Statistics) and fifth in Area 01 (Mathematics and Informatics).

The IMT School has also been awarded the prestigious title of "Department of Excellence" for the five-year period 2023-2027, thanks to the "Economic and Digital Resilience" (RED) project. The award includes funding for more than five million euros from the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research for an interdisciplinary analysis of economic and digital resilience from a post-pandemic perspective. 

The campus model, interdisciplinary research, and relationship with the local area are the pillars on which the identity of the IMT School is based.

The IMT School fosters a genuinely global atmosphere by welcoming students from diverse geographical locations. Additionally, the School boasts a successful track record of placing its graduates in prestigious universities, companies, and public institutions across the world. English is the official language at the School.

The IMT School offers five interdisciplinary PhD programs (Economics, Analytics and Decision Sciences; Cultural System; Cognitive, Computational and Social Neurosciences; Systems science and Management of Digital Transformation). 

It also coordinates the first National PhD program in Cybersecurity.

In addition to PhD courses, representing the core of its educational offering, the IMT School organizes master’s programs, advanced courses and executive courses for working professionals, also in collaboration with universities, research centers, cultural institutes, and other public or private institutions.

Doing research at the IMT School means becoming part of an interconnected system in which dialogue and exchange among apparently distant fields and methods are fostered. Interdisciplinarity is the cornerstone of the School mission. PhD students are directly involved in research activities.

Artificial intelligence, cyber security, software technologies, industrial automation, materials science, applied economics, behavioral economics, management, archeology, art history, visual studies, museology, cultural heritage enhancement, cognitive and social neuroscience are just some of the research fields currently active at the IMT School.

Scientific activity is organized into research units:

AXES - Laboratory for the Analysis of compleX Economic Systems

DYSCO - Dynamical Systems, Control, and Optimization

LYNX - Center for the interdisciplinary Analysis of Images

MOMILAB - Molecular Mind Laboratory

MUSAM - Multi-scale Analysis of Materials

NETWORKS - Network Theory, Theory of Modern Statistical Physics, Economic and Financial Systems

PhiBor - Philosophy on the Border of Civilizations and Intellectual Endeavours

SYSMA - System Modelling and Analysis

The IMT School is located in the city of Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. The Campus is made up of several, state-of-the-art buildings all located minutes from each other within Lucca's historic periphery Renaissance-era walls. 

Advanced training and research at the School are in fact fully integrated, thanks to the high quality of its services and underlying scientific infrastructure. Presently, the Campus stretches over 10,000 m2 and is located in two different complexes, the San Ponziano Complex and the San Francesco Complex, within which the library, the classrooms, the laboratories and the study rooms can be found. The Campus houses various internal and external areas used for study and socializing. 

Without a doubt, the residential Campus offers students and researchers of the IMT School the chance to experience full interaction and multidisciplinary integration.