The research activities of CSN4, involving around 1,000 scientists from all divisions of the INFN and three of the four national laboratories, regard so-called “Specific Initiatives” and are conducted in close collaboration with the academic world.

The theoretical research carried out by the INFN is of huge international interest. This is borne out by more than 1,200 scientific works and papers published in international journals with referees, the large number of citations and presentations at the most authoritative international conferences. The INFN works in close collaboration with theoretical physics researchers from around the world, in a constant exchange of ideas and experience among the various research agencies and with a significant contribution by young people (post-graduate and/or post-doctoral students), as reflected by some 300 theses and 70 doctoral dissertations produced each year.

In recent years, the INFN has also made a notable contribution to the development of parallel computers, for instance under the APE (Array Processor Experiment) project, of particular interest for research in the field of strong interactions and lattice gauge theories.