Research infrastructures

From 15 to 17 October 2026, Area Science Park participated in the EOSC Symposium 2026 in Florence, the annual event organised by the EOSC Association, with two contributions to sessions dedicated to the use of EOSC Nodes and technologies for making datasets FAIR-compliant (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). The EOSC Association brings together the European community involved in developing the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), Europe’s common data space supporting research and innovation, which aims to connect research infrastructures, resources and services. FORGE: integrating infrastructures and genomic data within the EOSC Federation Mariarita de Luca, Federica Bazzocchi and Valerio Piomponi from Area Science Park presented the results of FORGE – Federated Open Research Data for Genomics in EOSC, during the Usage of EOSC Nodes and related benefits session, which focused on practical experiences of integrating EOSC Nodes to support research activities. FORGE is being developed in collaboration with the Italian EOSC Node and the CERN EOSC Node. The project tests approaches to integrating infrastructures, computing services and distributed data management systems, enabling researchers to discover, access and process genomic datasets distributed across different nodes of the EOSC Federation through interoperable and reproducible workflows. The project combines Area Science Park’s ORFEO HPC/AI infrastructure with Rucio, an open-source system developed at CERN for distributed data management, and services from the EOSC ecosystem. The workflow also incorporates machine-readable FAIR-compliant metadata, improving the discoverability and reuse of scientific data. FORGE thus contributes to the development of a replicable integration model that could potentially be adopted by other research infrastructures and future EOSC Nodes to support federated data management and research activities, particularly in the life sciences. From FAIR data production to curation The Automating data FAIRification session explored technologies for making scientific data compliant with FAIR principles, both from the design stage (FAIR-by-design) and through subsequent adaptation processes (ex post FAIRification), with particular attention to scalability, economic sustainability and the transferability of solutions. Stefano Cozzini, Director of Area Science Park’s Research Institute for Technological Innovation, gave a presentation entitled FAIR from Creation to Curation: Technologies, Lab Upgrades and HPC Needs, focusing on the FAIR-by-design methodology and the application of FAIR principles throughout the entire data lifecycle, from laboratory data generation to curation and preservation. Cozzini presented experiences from the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) projects NFFA-DI and PRP@CERIC, for which Area Science Park designed the digital infrastructures. He highlighted the role of enabling technologies, upgrades to laboratory instrumentation, and HPC and AI computing resources, including the ORFEO data centre, in making scientific data genuinely reusable. The EOSC Federation enters its operational phase Organised by the EOSC Association, the symposium marked the EOSC Federation’s transition to its operational phase, bringing together leading representatives of the international research and innovation community in Florence. Speakers included Manuel Heitor, the driving force behind the Align, Act, Accelerate report and former Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education; Rosie Hicks, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Research Data Commons; and Mercè Crosas, Director of the Computational Social Science and Humanities Laboratory at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. Italy’s Minister of Universities and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, also addressed the symposium, highlighting Italy’s role in the development of EOSC and the importance of the Federation for Italian and European researchers.

From 14 to 18 September 2026, a delegation from Area Science Park made up of Mariarita de Luca and Federica Bazzocchi, researchers at the Laboratory of Data Engineering – LADE, and Federica Mantovani, Infrastructure Manager, visited the Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Digital Technologies at ESPOL (Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral), a historic public university based in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The mission is part of EU-CELAC, the European initiative that promotes scientific and technological cooperation between the European Union and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The visit, whose main goal was to explore cooperation opportunities in fields related to edge AI and intelligent systems, ideally represents the exchange counterpart to the study visit hosted by Area Science Park in June 2026, also under EU-CELAC, when a delegation of Latin American universities and research centres visited the ORFEO Data Center. During the week, the delegation visited several ESPOL research centres, including CIDIS – Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación de Sistemas Computacionales, a centre dedicated to developing technologies based on computer vision, machine learning, robotics and energy systems, and CTI – Centro de Tecnologías de Información, dedicated to research on information and communication technologies, with activities also touching on industrial artificial intelligence and technologies for intelligent environments. The delegation also visited CIBE – Centro de Biotecnología, whose mission is to generate, apply, transfer and disseminate biotechnological solutions to support the competitiveness of the agricultural industry, and SOLCA, one of the most advanced oncology institutes in Ecuador and the region. The meetings with ESPOL’s research groups brought out several lines and areas of collaboration around which shared interests could converge and complementary activities be developed: among these, drug discovery, virology, oncology, multiomics, hydrogen, robotics and new materials. Alongside these research lines, discussions also covered programmes for sharing guidelines and best practices, pathways to support the management and definition of research infrastructure sustainability programmes, and technology transfer initiatives. The theme at the heart of the collaboration remains, in particular, data management according to FAIR principles, for which the groundwork was laid for future structured training programmes. Alongside the visit, the Area Science Park representatives spoke at the workshop “First Summer School on Research Data and FAIR Principles – Ecuador Edition“, promoted by ESPOL, Universidad Indoamerica, the Ministerio de Educación, Deporte y Cultura of the Government of Ecuador, ISTICI, Area Science Park and CEDIA, and held over two sessions: on 18 September in Guayaquil and on 21 September in Quito. During the sessions, Mariarita de Luca, Federica Bazzocchi and Federica Mantovani guided participants through the themes of Open Science and research data management, with particular attention to FAIR principles and the FAIR-by-Design approach.

Trieste, September 22, 2026 – The third edition of MDMC – Master in Data Management and Curation, the advanced training programme sponsored by Area Science Park and SISSA – Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati and designed to train the next generation of scientific data management professionals, officially kicked off today, September 22, 2026. The goal of the Master’s program is to provide participants with the conceptual and practical tools necessary to effectively, responsibly, and sustainably manage the entire lifecycle of research data: from its production to its preservation and reuse over time. MDMC is part of the scientific and international ecosystem that characterizes Trieste and stems from the synergy between two institutions of excellence in the fields of research and higher education: Area Science Park, a national research organization and one of Italy’s leading science and technology parks, and SISSA, internationally renowned institute of higher education and research. Together, the two institutions have developed a program designed to provide participants with theoretical and practical skills that can be immediately applied to research and innovation, fields in which data management and artificial intelligence are now deeply intertwined. From the application of the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) to Open Science practices, from the design and implementation of ‘FAIR-by-design’ data workflows to metadata optimisation and the use of advanced tools, standards and technologies, the MDMC advanced training course enables participants to develop skills that are increasingly in demand by universities, research organisations, scientific infrastructures and innovative companies, at a time when the quality, traceability and openness of data have become fundamental and indispensable requirements in the fields of research and innovation. The third edition of the one-year Master’s programme begins with a cohort of 17 participants (14 full-time students and 3 auditors), which fully reflects the programme’s international and interdisciplinary nature. Italy, Argentina, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland: the students’ countries of origin are diverse and varied, a factor that encourages the comparison of different methodologies and research systems, as well as the exchange of experiences amongst participants. Equally diverse are the educational backgrounds of the participants. The cohort brings together a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, from data science to mathematics, from molecular biology and functional genomics to meteorology and climate science, and from psychology and cognitive neuroscience to graphic communication. This diversity reflects the nature of data curation, an interdisciplinary field that is fundamental to every area of science and technology. The kick-off of the third edition of MDMC, coincides with the launch of new official website of MDMC, which will serve as a hub for keeping up to date with the programme’s activities. The website features all the latest updates on the current course, the calendar of public seminars organised as part of the Master’s programme (which are also open to those not enrolled on the programme), and information on future intakes. The news website can be viewed at: http://mdmc-program.it/.

The 18th edition of the Multinational Congress on Microscopy (18MCM), one of the leading international events dedicated to microscopy and its most advanced applications, will be held in Trieste from 12 to 17 September 2027. The city was selected as the host venue following a bid submitted by the Italian Society for Microscopical Sciences (SISM), in collaboration with Area Science Park, and particularly its Electron Microscopy Laboratory, which draws on a well-established wealth of expertise, cutting-edge instrumentation and international partnerships. The congress is expected to bring more than 400 participants to Trieste, including researchers and early-career scientists from across Europe. This is comparable to the attendance recorded at the previous edition, held in Portorož (Slovenia) in September 2025. “Hosting the 18th edition of the Multinational Congress on Microscopy in Trieste is an important recognition of the scientific community in our region and further confirms the city’s role as an international research hub, built on an ecosystem of excellence and strong partnerships,” said Prof. Caterina Petrillo, President of Area Science Park. She added: “For the institution I lead, the congress is further confirmation of the excellence of the path undertaken in recent years, which has involved significant investments in infrastructures and expertise dedicated to materials science and advanced electron microscopy. This commitment has also been recognised at European level, as demonstrated by the recent success of the Microscopy Europe project, which successfully passed the European evaluation thresholds and was included in the ESFRI Roadmap 2026. Microscopy Europe will be the first European distributed infrastructure dedicated to advanced electron microscopy for the characterisation of materials at the atomic scale. Area Science Park contributed to its design and will continue to contribute to the development of its scientific programme over the next ten years.” The Multinational Congress on Microscopy is an internationally significant platform for scientific, technological and educational exchange. “The 18th edition of the Multinational Congress on Microscopy will provide an important opportunity to bring the international microscopy community together in Trieste and to discuss the latest scientific and technological developments in the field,” emphasises Regina Ciancio, Head of the Electron Microscopy Laboratory at Area Science Park and Chair of the Congress. “The programme will span from materials science to life sciences, with a particular focus on the new frontiers of advanced microscopy, instrumentation and emerging methodologies. Significant attention will also be devoted to early-career researchers, training, and dialogue among research organisations, scientific infrastructures and industry.” For further information on 18MCM, visit the 18MCM website.