CNIT is a non-profit consortium established in 1995 and bringing together 42 public Italian universities to perform research, innovation and education/training activities in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). CNIT also owns seven National Laboratories: “Multimedia Communications”, in Naples; “Photonic Networks & Technologies”, in Pisa; “Radar and Surveillance Systems”, in Pisa; “Smart, Sustainable and Secure Internet Technologies and Infrastructures”, in Genoa; “Advanced Optical Fibers”, in L’Aquila; “Wireless Communications”, in Bologna/Cesena/Ferrara; “Network Assessment, Assurance and Monitoring”, in Rome. More than 1,300 professors and researchers, belonging to the member universities, collaborate within CNIT, together with about 115 CNIT own employees.
CNIT participated in hundreds of research projects, including EU coordinated projects, ERC grants and Italian nation-wide initiatives. In the EU H2020 program, CNIT has obtained 61 projects (25,5M€); 15 of them coordinated by CNIT (69,9M€). In the Horizon Europe program, CNIT has obtained 29 projects (14.5M€); 10 of them coordinated by CNIT (53.2M€), and ranked first in 5 topics of the program calls. CNIT’s funding comes from private companies and competitive programs. The innovation and technology transfer of research results from universities towards end-users and industry is a primary mission for CNIT. CNIT also facilitates the cooperation between member universities and promotes the collaboration of the same universities with other research institutes and with national and international industries.
CNIT is very active in 5G and beyond related initiatives: i) CNIT participated in several EU projects on 5G and coordinated a number of them; ii) CNIT has been an elected member of the 5GPPP (https://5g-ppp.eu/), a 1.4 Billion Euro joint initiative including the European Commission and the European ICT industries and academia to rethink the network infrastructure and to create the next generation of communication networks and services and is now a member of 6G-IA (https://6g-ia.eu/); iii) CNIT participated in the 5G trials of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development in Milan; iv) CNIT participated in several EU projects on applications of 5G (e.g., for intelligent transport systems and autonomous vehicles) and in the Graphene and Quantum Information flagships projects.