The Research Doctorate is the highest (terminal) degree that can be obtained in Italy in any academic subject. It is equivalent to the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) of Anglo-Saxon countries. The main goal of a Research Doctorate program is to teach the methods of scientific research, be it pure or applied, within the chosen subject.

The Research Doctorate in fundamental and applied physics is part of the Doctorate School of Physical Sciences of the University of Naples "Federico II" (which is a large research university, and the oldest state university in the world). It is based in the Department of Physical Sciences of the University, but it sees the collaboration of the following three research institutes: INFN-Naples, CNR-SPIN (former INFM Coherentia), and INAF-Osservatorio di Capodimonte.

The overall scientific community amounts to more than 150 tenured faculty of the university and about another hundred scientists of the above mentioned research institutes, and many fellows, post-docs and other research assistants. The graduate students are more than 40, in the average. In the last years, about 20-30% of the admitted graduate students are international ones.

The research subjects of the Department and collaborating institutes cover almost all classic subjects of physics (theoretical, nuclear, subnuclear, of matter, astrophysics, geophysics, biophysics, applied physics, etc.), and in some cases interdisciplinary subjects. For further details, we suggest surfing the web sites of the Department and Institutes given above.

The great majority of the graduate students conclude successfully their studies in the standard three-year duration of the program (the program requires the master's degree for admission) and therefore obtains the degree. In most cases, the results of their research gets published on international scientific journals, often very prestigious ones.