The ICOS Castelporziano sites monitor exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere using the eddy-covariance technique. These measurements provide information on ecosystem carbon balance, water use and responses to environmental change. At the Castelporziano Estate, flux observations are integrated with soil-moisture measurements and ecological monitoring within a multidisciplinary framework involving three European research infrastructures: ICOS, eLTER and LifeWatch. eLTER contributes a long-term ecological perspective, focusing on vegetation dynamics, soil properties, nutrient cycling and ecosystem responses to environmental pressures.

LifeWatch complements these observations through biodiversity monitoring, including wildlife communities and multi-trophic interactions, while supporting the integration and analysis of biodiversity data. This integrated monitoring approach is particularly relevant for evaluating forest restoration strategies, comparing active reforestation with natural regeneration in areas affected by forest decline. By combining atmospheric fluxes, soil water availability, vegetation dynamics and biodiversity indicators, the Castelporziano supersite provides a holistic assessment of ecosystem functioning, recovery and resilience. The integration of these complementary research infrastructures supports evaluation of restoration outcomes, adaptive forest management and the effectiveness of nature based solutions under changing environmental conditions.

The Gran Sasso National Laboratory is the world’s leading underground research center, where experiments in astroparticle physics and nuclear astrophysics are conducted. Located under the Gran Sasso massif, covered by the 1400 meters of rock of Monte Aquila, the LNGS is accessible by the motorway tunnel connecting Teramo and Roma.
Established in the early 1980s, thanks to the brilliant insight of Antonino Zichichi, the LNGS attracts more than 1600 researchers every year from leading universities and research institutions across Europe and around the world.

The overlying mountain acts as a shield against the secondary component of cosmic rays originating in the atmosphere, which continuously hit the Earth’s surface and interfere with the study of extremely rare phenomena. By reducing the background noise, in this cosmic silence, it is possible to study neutrinos and other particles that interact weakly with matter and manage to reach the laboratory.

The technologies developed at LNGS have also had a significant impact beyond the field of astroparticle physics research. Ongoing collaborations with high-tech companies aim to transfer technologies developed through fundamental physics research to applications beyond research laboratories.

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental research organisation dedicated to fundamental research in the life sciences, scientific training and the development of technologies and services for the life science community.
EMBL Rome, established in Monterotondo in 1999, is EMBL’s Italian site. It brings together expertise in gene regulation, epigenetics, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence to investigate how organisms adapt to their environment. This combination of experimental and computational approaches is increasingly opening new ways of understanding the interactions between genes, environment, physiology and disease across the mammalian lifecourse.

The site combines research groups with core facilities specialised in genetic engineering and virus production, cellular analysis, histology, imaging and quantitative phenotyping. EMBL’s facilities provide expertise and technologies that can also be accessed by the wider research community - in line with EMBL’s open research mission.
EMBL Rome is embedded in the Adriano Buzzati-Traverso International Scientific Campus in Monterotondo. The campus hosts EMBL alongside research activities and infrastructures of the Institute for Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IBBC).

IBBC operates key resources for mouse model generation, preservation and phenotyping, including the Mouse Clinic and the Italian node of INFRAFRONTIER/EMMA (European Mouse Mutant Archive). EMMA provides access to a large collection of genetically altered mouse lines and contributes to their long-term preservation, distribution and scientific exploitation within the European biomedical research community. These complementary infrastructures place the Monterotondo campus within a broader European ecosystem for mammalian functional genomics and preclinical research.

The INFN Frascati National Laboratory (LNF), founded in 1957, was the first of the INFN National Laboratories and remains the largest by number of employees. Since its establishment, LNF has focused on two core activities: developing, building and operating particle accelerators, and designing forefront detectors for particle, nuclear and astroparticle experiments. Following a recent land acquisition LNF now covers about 142,300 m², including 28,500 m² of indoor space (offices, laboratories and service areas). LNF hosts several major research infrastructures:

• DAΦNE, Europe's only e⁺e⁻ collider operating at the Φ meson energy, delivering instantaneous luminosities up to 4.5×10³² cm⁻² s⁻¹.
• DAΦNE_Light, a synchrotron light laboratory with seven beamlines in the soft X-ray and infrared range, fed by the DAΦNE electron ring.
• BTF (Beam Test Facility), offering two beamlines from the DAΦNE Linac, delivering electrons, positrons and photons up to ~700 MeV, used for detector/irradiation testing, beam diagnostics, and small fundamental physics experiments.
• SPARC_LAB, combining a linear electron accelerator (SPARC) driving a FEL with a ~200 TW laser (FLAME), dedicated to R&D on plasma wakefield acceleration, terahertz radiation and Compton sources.
• SCF_LAB, a certified facility for laser ranging equipment, approved by the International Laser Ranging Service.
• COLD lab, a cryogenic facility for ultra-sensitive photon detector development, with cooling down to mK temperatures.
• TEX, an RF test facility for X-band (12 GHz) structures up to 100 MV/m, recently upgraded for C-band (5.7 GHz) testing.
• Large assembly halls with ISO 6/8 clean rooms (~480 m²) for building major experimental apparatus.

The Enrico Fermi Historical Museum of Physics and Research Centre (CREF) is a research institution located in the historic building of Via Panisperna in Rome, which once housed the Royal Institute of Physics. Founded in 1881 under Pietro Blaserna and subsequently directed by Orso Mario Corbino, the Institute became a leading centre for modern physics.
During the 1930s, Enrico Fermi and the group of young scientists known as the “Via Panisperna Boys”conducted pioneering research on neutron-induced radioactivity, laying essential foundations for nuclear physics and contributing to Fermi’s Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938.

Established by Italian Law No. 62 of 15 March 1999 and fully operational in its restored historic headquarters since November 2019, CREF combines scientific research with the preservation and dissemination of the history of physics.
Its mission is twofold: to advance original, interdisciplinary research based on physical methods and to promote scientific knowledge and culture through the Enrico Fermi Museum and a wide range of outreach and educational activities.
CREF's scientific activities foster collaboration across disciplines, while its museum, conferences, educational programmes and public events engage researchers, students and the wider public.

By connecting cutting-edge research with one of the most significant chapters in the history of modern physics, CREF contributes to scientific innovation, interdisciplinary dialogue and public understanding of science, while preserving the extraordinary legacy of Enrico Fermi and his collaborators.