The headquarters of the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (IGG) of the CNR is located within the CNR Research Area in Pisa. The IGG headquarters employs 50 permanent and temporary staff, as well as numerous research grant holders. There are close ties with the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Pisa, with numerous university staff formally associated with the IGG.

The Institute's staff works on geodynamic, geological, geothermal, geochronological, and geomorphological topics, as well as environmental issues including groundwater resources and the impact of human activities on the environment, biogeochemical cycles and geosphere-biosphere interaction in the Earth Critical Zone, geological aspects of the carbon cycle, planetary geology, paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions, the impacts of global change, and geological and environmental hazards.

The IGG's facilities include numerous and diverse analytical laboratories for chemistry, geochemistry, and isotopic methods, field measurement and observation, numerical simulation, database creation and management, and geological and environmental data analysis and interpretation.