SISSA, the International School for Advanced Studies, was founded in 1978 and is a scientific center of excellence within the national and international academic scene. Located in Italy, in the city of Trieste, it features 80 professors, about 130 post-docs, 300 PhD students and 100 technical administrative staff. Situated on the scenic Karst upland, the School is surrounded by a 25 acre park, and offers a stunning view of the Gulf of Trieste. All the scientific work carried out by SISSA researchers is published regularly in leading international journals with a high impact factor, and frequently in the most prestigious scientific journals such as Nature and Science. The School has also drawn up over 200 collaboration agreements with the world’s leading schools and research institutes. The quality level of the research is further confirmed by the fact that within the competitive field of European funding schemes SISSA holds the top position among Italian scientific institutes in terms of research grants obtained in relation to the number of researchers and professors. Such leadership should also be seen in terms of SISSA’s ability to obtain funding, both from the private and public sectors, such as SIR and PRIN.