Research is one of the Institute's main activities. Between 1971 and the early 1980s, IPALMO focused on decolonization issues, the fight for democracy in Latin America, and narrowing the economic gap between industrialised and non-industrialised countries. Over the last decade, IPALMO has turned its attention to international development Co-operation and progress, following a series of Italian Co-operation reforms.

The Institute has recently begun to expand its sphere of activities, strengthening its ties with the European Union, regional institutes and the business world. IPALMO believes that networking is vital to international co-operation policy, and that only by full participation and knowledge-sharing may a more incisive policy be promoted.

Current focus areas for IPALMO are: political and economic regional integration processes in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia; the evolution of these areas' relations with the European Union; analysis of European Union action and policies; poverty strategies and of socio-economic and political vulnerability; food security and sustainable development; hunger and the world distribution of food; water resources and desertification; environment and sustainable development; Italian development Co-operation policy in the world; the internationalization of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SME) in industrialised and emerging countries and more intensified knowledge-sharing.