Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna is a public university - with special autonomy - active in the fields of applied and social sciences: economics and management, law sciences, political sciences, agricultural sciences and biotechnology, medical sciences, and biomedical and information engineering. The BioRobotics Institute hosts about 200 researchers. The PhD programme in biorobotics pursues creative and science-based engineering research, and successfully promotes the creation of new companies in high-technology sectors.