Italy's national institute for astrophysics, INAF, and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics, INFN, used a joint event in Rome to show what the country's recovery plan has bought for basic research. The meeting, titled "Oltre il Pnrr" and held on 12 November at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, put the new research infrastructure and training financed under the plan on public display, while raising a harder question: what comes next when that funding ends.
The money came from the Ministry of University and Research, MUR, and went into new facilities as well as the skills needed to run them. Education and research minister Anna Maria Bernini stressed the need for continuity and said a new funding model, tied to performance, is being prepared. She also named the Einstein Telescope, the planned gravitational-wave observatory, as the most ambitious challenge ahead.
INAF president Roberto Ragazzoni focused on the long timescales of instrument development, arguing that major scientific tools take years to design and build and therefore need planning that outlasts any single funding cycle. INFN president Antonio Zoccoli noted that his institute marks its 75th anniversary this year. INAF had recently signed a cooperation protocol with the ministry, which the two institutes presented as part of the same effort to plan ahead.
The projects on show ranged across several fields. Lunar and Earth-Moon-Mars, or EMM, initiatives aim to develop tools for space science. Underground physics received attention through the upgrade of the LNGS Future laboratory, and superconductivity work was presented under the IRIS name. Multi-messenger astronomy, which combines different kinds of cosmic signals, was represented by the CTA+, ETIC and KM3Net4RR projects. Computing was described as a key enabler, with the ICSC high-performance computing centre and the TERABIT network cited as central pieces.
The open question running through the event was whether this momentum can be kept. Continuity of funding after the recovery plan ends remains uncertain, and the 2021–2027 Pn Ric research programme was mentioned as a possible source for the next phase. For now, the two institutes' message was that the infrastructure built with recovery money has to be maintained if it is to pay off.
Credit. Based on reporting for Media INAF. Is this your work? Write to us.
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