Naples hosts the largest concentration of academic and research institutes in Southern Italy.

The Campania region (of which Naples is the chief city) supports nine Universities (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope, Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale, Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Università degli Studi del Sannio, Università Telematica Giustino Fortunato, Università Telematica Pegaso) and a number of research centres whose interests stretch across various disciplines: agriculture and food, ecology, life sciences and medicine, biotechnology, socio-economic sciences, to cite some.

Eighteen (58%) of the 31 Institutes distributed in the South and belonging to the Italian National Research Council (CNR) are in Campania (17 in Naples, 1 in Avellino). Of these, seven are devoted to Life Sciences and Molecular Design and include the Institutes of Genetics and Biophysics (IGB) and of Protein Biochemistry (IBP) that, together with TIGEM, share the same research complex. Other than the CNR’s Institutes, other important research organizations, whose mission is in the Biological Sciences, are the Stazione Zoologica, Anton Dohrn, Napoli (that includes the oldest Aquarium in Europe) and several institutional consortia (e.g. BIOGEM and CEINGE).

The large number of institutes in the Campania region favours contacts between organizations working in similar research fields but also collaborations between the Universities and public and private research institutions.
In particular, TIGEM’s close proximity to the IGB and IBP has stimulated collaborations. The TIGEM and IGB seminar series are organized on the spot, encouraging scientists of both institutes to participate and thus favouring an inter-change of ideas and interests. TIGEM also counts a long-standing collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics from the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II and has recently established collaboration with the Department of Ophthalmology of the Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli. Finally, an outpatient clinic for pediatric patients with inherited ocular diseases is now made possible, by a combined strength of TIGEM and of the two Naples Medical Schools.