CNIT (National, Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications, www.cnit.it) is a non-profit consortium, established in 1995, bringing together 37 public Italian universities to perform research, innovation and education/training activities in the field of the Information and Communication Technology. CNIT operates 43 Research Units, one for each member university, plus seven other units belonging to institutes of the National Research Council (CNR, the largest public research institution in Italy) that reached a cooperation agreement with CNIT. CNIT also operates five National Laboratories: Photonic Networks & Technologies (located in Pisa); Radar & Surveillance Systems (located in Pisa); Multimedia Communications (located in Napoli); Smart, Sustainable and Secure Internet Technologies and Infrastructures (located in Genova), Advanced Optical Fibers for Photonics (located in L’Aquila).
More than 1,300 professors and researchers, belonging to the member universities, collaborate within CNIT, together with more than 100 CNIT own employees. CNIT participated in hundreds of research projects, including EU coordinated projects, ERC grants and Italian nation-wide initiatives. In H2020 European program the CNIT has obtained 41 projects, with 10 of the latter being coordinated by CNIT.
CNIT has also a significant experience in the organization of scientific events and conferences; for instance, CNIT is currently organizing a conference with more than 1000 participants (http://www.ecoc2018.org/).
The innovation and technology transfer of research results towards end-users and industry is a primary mission for CNIT. CNIT also promotes the collaboration between member universities and other educational institutes as well as technical and scientific collaborations with national and international research institutes and industries.