MUR Allocates €2 Million to Strengthen the Life Sciences Laboratories
Area Science Park has been granted €2 million to boost research in omics sciences — the study of interactions between genes, proteins and metabolites — aimed at gaining a more detailed understanding of the mechanisms underlying diseases.
These resources have been allocated by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) to the National Research Institute with headquarters in Trieste and will strengthen the laboratory hosted on the campus of the University of Salerno, an institution with which Area Science Park maintains a well-established and long-standing collaboration. Minister Anna Maria Bernini has signed the decree distributing the new annual allocation of the Fund for construction and research infrastructures. For 2025, the Fund has a total budget of €94 million.
The omics sciences laboratory in Salerno will operate in an integrated manner with Area Science Park’s life sciences research infrastructure (genomics, structural biology and data science), which represents a node within the national and international network of the Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium (CERIC) and functions on an open access basis.
The project has an overall value of €3.5 million, of which €2 million is the 2025 funding provided by MUR.
“Our Research Institutes are jewels, a source of pride for Italy and an international scientific reference”, explains Minister Anna Maria Bernini. “It is our responsibility to ensure that these centres of excellence can grow and continue on their path. It is necessary to guarantee resources for new projects, finance increasingly complex infrastructures and support the most advanced technologies”, adds the Minister. “The new €94 million funding from the Fund for construction and the modernisation of the research infrastructure moves in this direction. It enables scientific institutions to boost their study activities and open new research frontiers capable of generating concrete and positive impacts for improving quality of life. We want to give continuity to an already excellent effort, a flagship of our country. We believe in it. And results come from believing”.
“The MUR funding is highly significant in the development strategy of the Institute’s activities as it allows us to upgrade the southern laboratory, thereby laying the foundations for the construction a new Institute of Integrated Omics Sciences”, says Caterina Petrillo, President of Area Science Park. “The idea is that, through collaboration with the University of Salerno and other important scientific institutions, the Institute can become a thematic reference point for the South and a magnet for young researchers”.
The €94 million from the Fund for construction and research infrastructures have been allocated taking into account requests and projects formulated by each institute for building works and modernisation of scientific infrastructures. For each institute, the resources allocated will be monitored while keeping in mind the timetable of activities to be carried out based on the funding granted.