Large Research Infrastructures and the Future of Territories

As part of R2I – Research to Innovate Italy – Italian Regions for Innovation in the Country, the panel entitled “Large Research Infrastructures and the Future of Territories” was held at Ex GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, on 12–13 May 2026. Professor Michele Mossa was invited to participate on behalf of the LIC – Coastal Engineering Laboratory of the Polytechnic University of Bari, according to the following program.


Amber Hall | Innovate Area, Ground Floor
12 May 2026
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

From the Einstein Telescope to Italian Scientific Infrastructures: Industrial Innovation, Social Transformation, and New Agreements with Communities
What really happens to a territory when a major research infrastructure arrives?
And above all: who governs that transformation?

These are the central questions of the panel, built around a clear conviction: major scientific infrastructures are not merely technical facilities.
They are accelerators of territorial transformation, generators of high-tech industrial supply chains, and mechanisms that — if governed with strategic intelligence — can reshape the destiny of a region for decades.

Italy already hosts an extraordinary network of frontier research infrastructures distributed throughout the national territory.

Each of them has produced profound and measurable effects on the territories that host them.
Every experience is a lesson.
Every territory that has already undergone this transition serves as a mirror for those preparing to do so.

The panel brings these voices together around a common guiding question: what has truly changed?

The answer concerns not only physics.
It concerns four strategic dimensions that politics still tends to treat as secondary issues compared to excavations and cryostats, but which are instead necessary conditions for a research infrastructure to generate lasting value:

social innovation within local communities, which must become protagonists of change rather than mere spectators;
hardware and software industrial innovation along the technological supply chain, capable of transforming local companies into specialized suppliers for the global big science market;
cultural transformation, which must precede the arrival of construction works, accompany the building phase, and consolidate into new identity models for the territory;
a multilevel institutional architecture integrating scientific, regulatory, territorial, and industrial dimensions into permanent rather than emergency-based structures.
The panel is structured into four moments:

a narrative opening with a central provocation;
short and focused interventions delivered by a single representative for each infrastructure, selected for their dual ability to conduct cutting-edge research and communicate it to non-specialist audiences;
a structured dialogic discussion on the four strategic corollaries;
an open workshop with live audience voting and the real-time production of a shared map of priorities.
The event does not end with applause.
It concludes with a mandate: the Italian Pact for Major Research Infrastructures, a policy document signed by participants and addressed to the Conference of Regions and the competent Ministries, together with the launch of a permanent network for dialogue among Italian Regions hosting these facilities.

Bologna not as a destination.
As a trigger.


Abruzzo
Ezio Previtali, Director – LNGS
Stefano Maria Cianciotta, Chief of Staff to the Presidency – Abruzzo Region
Sicily
Giacomo Cuttone, Research Director – LNS, Southern National Laboratories
Dario Cartabellotta, Director General, Department of Productive Activities – Sicilian Region
Puglia
Giuseppe Acierno, President and General Director – DTA
Antonio Navarra, President – CMCC Foundation
Michele Mossa, Scientific Coordinator of the SHORES Project and the LIC Laboratory
Elisa Berlingerio, Director General, Department of Economic Development – Puglia Region
Silvia Visciano, Head of the Research and International Relations Section – Puglia Region
Pierfrancesco Dellino, Delegate for Research Infrastructures – University of Bari
Emilia-Romagna
Gabriella Scipione, Director of HPC Supercomputing – CINECA
Sardinia
Domenico D’Urso, Einstein Telescope
Sebastian Cocco, Regional Minister for General Affairs – Autonomous Region of Sardinia
Friuli Venezia Giulia
Caterina Petrillo, President – Area Science Park
Calabria
Raffaele Giuseppe Agostino, UNICAL STAR – Southern Europe Thomson Backscattering Source for Applied Research
Basilicata
Isabella De Bari, PIBE Project
Autonomous Province of Trento
Valentina Perrotta, Director of the Research and Innovation System Planning Office – Autonomous Province of Trento
Alfredo Maglione, Vice President of Confindustria Trento – President of the OPTOI Group
Lombardy
Elisabetta Confalonieri, Director General for Universities, Research and Innovation – Lombardy Region
Vincenzina Cristofaro, Strategic Coordination Officer to the Director General – DG Universities, Research and Innovation – Lombardy Region
Tommaso Mazzei, Deputy Director and Head of Legislative Affairs, Research Planning and Governance Unit – DG Universities, Research and Innovation – Lombardy Region
Cross-cutting Voices: Innovation, Territory and Governance of Knowledge – Research & Territory
Andrea Bonaccorsi, University of Pisa – Economics and Science Policy
Gianluigi Consoli, Director General for Internationalization – Ministry of Universities and Research