NFFA2050

NFFA's application to the ESFRI Roadmap 2026 with the project NFFA2050 was submitted in April 2025 and is supported by five European countries, one EIRO Forum member and fifteen institutions from eleven Countries.

NFFA2050 is proposed as a new ESFRI‑level Research Infrastructure on the Roadmap 2026, building on more than ten years of successful operation of the NFFA‑Europe research infrastructure. Conceived under FP7, extensively validated through Horizon 2020 projects, and included in the ESFRI Landscape since 2016, NFFA has demonstrated that integrated access to nanoscience capabilities is a structural asset for the European Research Area. NFFA2050 represents a major step forward, moving into a preparation phase focused on advanced digitalisation, organisational and legal consolidation, and long‑term sustainability.

NFFA2050 will create a fully integrated European environment for frontier research on matter and advanced materials, interconnecting the most relevant elements of the Physical Sciences and Engineering analytical landscape. Through multi‑environment and multi‑messenger workflows, it will combine more than 180 experimental and theoretical methods with over 600 state‑of‑the‑art instruments, enhanced by automation, AI‑driven optimization, real‑time experimental simulators, digital twins and FAIR‑by‑design data generation. New services will support users across the entire research chain—from proposal preparation and feasibility checks to data acquisition, analysis and reuse—bridging basic research and upscaling activities towards technology infrastructures. Tools such as a Sample Catalogue, metadata repositories, denoising libraries, and access to generative AI models for materials science will significantly enhance research efficiency and quality.

Aligned with recent EU competitiveness and research policy recommendations, NFFA2050 contributes to the defragmentation of national initiatives, strengthens European technological sovereignty, and accelerates excellent research and deep‑tech innovation in strategic domains such as quantum materials, advanced materials for energy, biotechnology and AI‑enabled science. With proven global attractiveness, strong international networking and a total planned investment of €180M, NFFA2050 is designed as a low‑risk, high‑impact public investment that will set a new international standard for integrated, data‑centric research infrastructures, delivering scientific excellence, innovation capacity, skilled human capital and long‑term societal value.