Fondazione Bruno Kessler is a private non-profit research centre working for the public interest. Established by the government of the Autonomous Province of Trento, FBK conducts research in the areas of Information Technology, Materials and Microsystems, Nuclear Physics, Mathematics, Italian-German Historical Studies, Religious Studies, and Effectiveness of public policies. By means of an extensive network of alliances and partnerships, FBK also deals with international relationships, European institutions, behavioural economics, conflicts resolution and communications.
One of the largest research area of interest is the Center for Materials and Microsystems, in which FBK has a full range of skills, technologies and laboratories. FBK is one of the partners of the EIT ICT Labs, is member of the research grouping N.ERGHY and one of the five strategic partners of eseia (European Sustainable Energy and Innovation Alliance).
ARES (Applied Research on Energy Systems), is a research unit focused on providing integrated and sustainable energy solutions for distributed level applications. ARES is involved in sustainable systems on the full R&D life cycle, from basic scientific research through applied research and engineering. ARES participated in several funded projects on Sustainable Systems and Renewable Energies, focused on m-CHP technologies and energy storages for small-scale applications.