Potentiating the Italian Capacity for Structural Biology Services in Instruct-ERIC

The ITACA.SB project aims to enhance the Italian center of the Instruct-ERIC European infrastructure, present in the ESFRI Roadmap since 2006 and Landmark of ESFRI, based at the CERM in Florence, and to implement distributed platforms dedicated to the structural biology of the CNR in Italy. This action aims to facilitate researchers’ access to cutting-edge instrumentation and expertise in structural biology so as to support excellent scientific research.

The main objectives of the ITACA.SB project are to maintain the excellence of the Italian Instruct-ERIC center worldwide; support the competitiveness of the Italian scientific community at European and international level and strengthen synergies with the other IRs of the ESFRI Roadmap in the Health and Food sector. The project also includes many training activities aimed at expanding the use of structural biology technologies by the Italian scientific community, as well as ensuring a high level of competence of the personnel involved in providing the service.

ITACA.SB will allow access to the infrastructure facilities to scientists from European universities and research centres, but also to personnel from companies interested in developing new technologies. Finally, the ITACA.SB project was developed with a view to long-term environmental sustainability, paying attention to having an essentially zero environmental impact.