Success of the First Call for NFFA-DI

The first call for the NFFA-DI infrastructure, announced in September, ended successfully on 10 November, with the active participation of 81 researchers from 28 research institutes, universities and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as four international institutions.

NFFA-DI is a research infrastructure distributed across Italy and was created thanks to funding by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which integrates cutting-edge instrumentation, computational resources and scientific data management in line with “Fair” and open science principles.

Working alongside the eight operational units of the National Research Council (CNR), which coordinates the project, are those of the partner institutions: Area Science Park, the Polytechnic University of Milan and the University of Milan. These 11 operational units are centres of excellence in nanoscience and nanotechnology in Italy.

In the first call, 29 research projects were presented, leveraging the capabilities of the consortium’s five distributed installations, made available through its 11 access points, also using them in combination with each other to obtain innovative results. The topics covered span across various cutting-edge scientific areas, including Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Engineering and ICT. Applications range from quantum technologies to biotechnology applied to diagnostics, sustainable energy solutions, hybrid materials research in nanotechnology and photonics.

These areas of research are crucial for developing innovative solutions to global challenges such as sustainable energy, advancements in medical technologies and innovation in electronic devices and communications, as well as enhancing computational capabilities.

The projects submitted involve not only basic research but also applied research, with two projects explicitly expressing industrial interest.

A total of 45 experimental sessions were requested in the first call, corresponding to 260 days of access to the facilities. Notably, young researchers made up approximately one third of the participants, highlighting the importance of NFFA-DI as a valuable opportunity for researchers in the early stages of their careers to engage with state-of-the-art techniques and advanced instrumentation, supported by industry experts.

The second call for the project is now open and will close on 15 April 2025.

Key numbers:

29 Projects submitted (2 of industrial interest)

45 Experimental sessions requested

260 Days of access to the infrastructure requested

18 Different scientific techniques

28 Institutions (2 SMEs and 4 foreign institutions)

81 Users (of which one third are young researchers: students, PhD students, post-docs)

(Source: CNR)