The scope of CITAB is focused on the agro-food and forestry systems using the production-chain approach as a whole. It is composed of a multidisciplinary team with expertise ranging from fundamental sciences such as biology and chemistry to agronomists, forestry engineers and ecologists. The group benefits from the input of other scientific experts in the fields of mathematics, physics, technological engineering and engineers.
The novelty of CITAB relies exactly on the inclusion of these other expertise in our centre, bringing new solutions and maximization of the resources and a higher added value in the development and upgrading of the agriculture and forestry production chains.

To cover vertical studies in all the systems the foci for the new centre were divided into three areas: ecointegrity, integrative biology & quality and biosystems engineering.

With this structure we envisaged a more homogeneity and interaction, when approaching the production chain concept in which the climate effects right through the quality of the final plant products and the inputs from engineering, modelling and remote sensing technologies have a relevant and innovative role.