Yesterday, June 24, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso signed the Commission's decision that establishes CERIC-ERIC, the European research infrastructure consortium for analytical research and synthesis in life sciences and nanotechnology in central Europe. In addition to Italy, the Consortium's members include Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. Other countries, including Croatia, Hungary, and Poland, are expected to join shortly. The statutory seat of the Consortium will be located at the Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste Research Centre.

The Consortium is an ERIC (European Research Infrastructures Consortium), a distributed research infrastructure based on the recent Council Regulation 723/2009: it draws together the best research centres and specialized laboratories from participating countries in a closely integrated network able to operate at the highest quality levels and to guarantee open access.

Based on a total investment of over € 100 million, CERIC brings together centres that develop and make available to researchers and industries the most advanced analytical instruments for the characterization and innovative development of materials such as synchrotron light, magnetic resonance, neutron spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. These instruments can be applied in fields ranging from life sciences to nanoscience and nanotechnology, and from cultural and environmental heritage to materials science.

"CERIC is the first ERIC with its statutory seat in Italy: we are particularly proud of this achievement, and even prouder to have been chosen to host the Consortium in Trieste, on Elettra's premises. This success testifies to the widely acknowledged international technical and scientific quality of the Centre, its staff and its management, which have allowed us to be credible and effective on a globally competitive level" - remarked Carlo Rizzuto, president of Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste. "CERIC-ERIC's international, pan-European approach, which aims to overcome duplication and fragmentation in the research system - he added - aims to strengthen the competitiveness of the European Research Area, and will have the full backing of the European Union in complete synergy with the Horizon 2020 programme".