The Department R&I activity is structured into four research lines, identified as research priorities for the period 2021-2027:

• Design, materials and construction technologies for more sustainable infrastructures – dedicated to promoting sustainability in transport infrastructure construction and rehabilitation, through the adoption of new concepts, materials and construction technologies that minimise the impact of transport infrastructures throughout its lifecycle and contribute to the objectives of circular economy.
• Performance assessment and asset management in transport infrastructures – aiming at contributing to the development, improvement and implementation of methodologies for infrastructures performance evaluation, intelligent analysis models and integrated methods for application in asset management of transportation networks.
• Management of road infrastructure safety interventions – dedicated to the improved effectiveness of the tools used in the frame of Road Safety Management System (RISM) to support the infrastructure interventions for accident mitigation, through the advance on knowledge on the relations between road environment, traffic characteristics, road user behaviour and road safety indicators, as well as the evaluation of the safety engineering interventions.
• Sustainable mobility, transport and new mobility services – aiming at contributing to the implementation of sustainable and multimodal mobility, through the evaluation and design of integrated transport solutions and new intelligent mobility services, aligned with the goals of just transition to carbon neutrality.