The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap 2026 will be enriched by a new Research Infrastructure (RI) offering the combination and integration of unique resources for research on quantum matter, advanced energy materials, biomaterials, ranging from large scale facility methods to the most advanced academic-level specialized instruments for multi-technique experiments and theory. The decision was taken during ESFRI's 96th plenary meeting, held in Nicosia, Cyprus, in June 2026.
Building on the 11-year consolidated operation of NFFA-Europe that has offered access to over 180 methods and 600 instruments to over 3000 users, the new NFFA2050 (NANO Foundries and Fine Analysis – 2050) ESFRI RI will push ahead the state of the art by further integrating digital services (Orchestration layer, Digital Twins, FAIR-by-design data) into its offer, effectively allowing the user to hoose among optimized research workflows tailored to the scope of the proposed research.
At SCC, a dedicated research group led by Dr. Rossella Aversa has been actively involved in the NFFA ecosystem from the very beginning, contributing expertise and services that support FAIR research data management and virtual access. The inclusion of NFFA2050 in the ESFRI Roadmap highlights the scientific excellence and strategic relevance of this long-standing European collaboration.
The hybrid research workflows of NFFA2050, which will be built by integrating the most advanced instrumentation of the partners with novel AI-based solutions for access optimization and all-new user services including Digital Twins, real-time analytics and automated FAIR data production, will create an augmented research environment for curiosity-driven research as well as for innovation-driven projects, addressing deep-tech validation and co-creation of industry oriented prototypes, interfacing the Technology Infrastructures at intermediate Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs).
The users of the NFFA2050 will be in the driver sit for steering the research strategy through real-time updated workflow options that are refined as the data are acquired, indicating potentially very efficient usage of instrument time and optimizing time to result.
The ESFRI RI status gives maximum exposure and responsibility to implement NFFA2050, to establish the European governance, to identify the resources needed and synergies with the whole Physical Sciences & Engineering (PSE) sector of ESFRI and beyond.
Contact at SCC: Dr. Rossella Aversa
To the press release “Project Update NFFA2050”