The PhD course in Energy and Sustainable Development is aimed at training various professional people, as evidenced by the multidisciplinary nature of the PhD Board, as well as the addressed issues and the available laboratories, instruments and facilities.

The proposed teaching and research activities (theoretical and laboratory) are oriented to:
- the sustainable development of energy production systems, their conscious use and their environmental impact, integrating engineering skills for the development of machines and technologies at the service of traditional and renewable energy chains (engineering area);
- energy saving in agri-food technologies, the study of solutions for energy efficiency and environmental comfort in buildings (agricultural and engineering areas);
- the tools for the management, analysis and monitoring of the territory for the purpose of evaluating the available energy resources (agricultural and territorial engineering areas);
- the study of health effects, also in terms of health damage assessment, of technologies and plants for the production and use of energy from fossil or renewable sources (medical area).

In particular, with reference to the two curricula in which the PhD course is divided:
- Energy and environmental comfort: the aim is to train people oriented to the challenge of sustainable development, to monitor and mitigate the impact of energy systems on health and the environment in the civil and industrial energy efficiency sector, to study and evaluate solutions for indoor and outdoor environmental comfort, to the analysis of innovative technologies for the use of traditional sources, but above all renewable sources (in particular biomass), to the study of solutions for thermo-energy storage in buildings, for electrical and natural gas storage with low environmental impact, to the production of biofuels.
- Energy and resources from agriculture and territory: the objective is the training of people for the management, enhancement and sustainable promotion of the territory, also thanks to specific activities of monitoring, prevention and mitigation of risks (such as seismic one), for the use rationalization of the energy resources available in the agricultural, forestry and industrial by-products sectors (in particular, the agro-food and zootechnical sectors), for the detection and planning of the use of the aforementioned resources in the territory, for the study of integration of the agriculture and energy production chains, reducing costs and impacts.

For both curricula, the training objectives for each year of the course are as follows:
1st year: acquisition of basic and specialist knowledge on scientific notions, lab activities and the use of laboratory equipment, the use of software and anything else necessary to achieve the scientific objective of the three-year period, to be agreed with the tutor.
2nd year: acquisition of specialist knowledge on scientific notions useful for achieving the objectives of the research project of the student, which should be defined in detail with the tutor. Acquisition of autonomy in carrying out research activities related to the research project.
3rd year: Autonomous research activities related to the research project. Dissemination of results in scientific congresses, writing the Phd thesis.