In a nutshell
Bologna's research does not happen only inside the university. National institutes for astrophysics, nuclear physics and geophysics have their Bologna branches here, a research hospital has worked on the hill above the city since the 19th century, and a former tobacco factory now houses some of Europe's largest computers.
The cards below give one short description of each, a link to its official site and a map link.
The university
Research in Bologna starts with the university, which gave the city its academic reputation.
The university describes itself as the oldest in the Western world; 1088 is the year conventionally taken as the founding of the Studium of Bologna.
Map →Sources: [1]
Physics and Earth sciences in Bologna: national institutes
Italy's national research organisations work through local institutes and sections. In Bologna you will find astrophysics and radio astronomy (INAF), nuclear and particle physics (INFN), geophysics and volcanology (INGV) and a whole campus of the National Research Council (CNR).
INAF's astrophysics and space science observatory in Bologna, formed in January 2018. Research areas: extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, stellar populations and galactic astrophysics, relativistic and particle astrophysics, instruments and software.
Map →INAF's Institute of Radioastronomy, one of the two INAF institutes on the CNR research campus in Via Gobetti, next to the OAS observatory.
Map →The Bologna division of Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics, formally recognised as a division in 1956. Its research covers particle, astroparticle, nuclear and theoretical physics and technological research, and it takes part in all four main experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
Map →The Bologna section of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology works on topics from volcano dynamics to seismic hazard. Its new headquarters, inside the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy 'Augusto Righi', opened in February 2023.
Map →The Bologna research area of Italy's National Research Council (CNR), on Via Gobetti. Its campus hosts six CNR institutes – for bioeconomy (IBE), atmospheric sciences and climate (ISAC), marine sciences (ISMAR), nanostructured materials (ISMN), organic synthesis and photoreactivity (ISOF) and polar sciences (ISP) – together with two INAF institutes.
Map →Computing and data
Three large computing facilities make Bologna one of Europe's data hubs: Italy's national supercomputing centre, INFN's computing centre for physics data and the data centre of the European weather forecasting centre. Most of them sit in the DAMA technopole.
CINECA grew out of a consortium formed in 1969 by four Italian universities with the support of the Ministry of Education. Its Leonardo is a EuroHPC pre-exascale supercomputer at the Bologna Technopole, inaugurated on 24 November 2022. On the November 2022 TOP500 list it was the fourth fastest in the world.
Map →INFN's national centre for research and development in computing. It hosts the Tier-1 data centre, one of ten such centres worldwide in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. Its new data centre at the Technopole was inaugurated on 10 May 2024.
Map →The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts runs its high-performance computing facility in a refurbished former tobacco factory at the Technopole. The data centre was formally opened in September 2021.
Map →Medicine
A highly specialised hospital and research institute for orthopaedics and traumatology, and a university teaching centre. Founded by the surgeon Francesco Rizzoli on the hill of San Michele in Bosco and inaugurated on 28 June 1896; today it runs ten research laboratories.
Map →Sources
- University of Bologna – Our history
- INAF OAS Bologna – About us
- CNR – Bologna Research Area: institutes on the Via Gobetti campus
- INFN – Bologna Division
- INGV Bologna – Inauguration of the new headquarters (2023)
- CINECA HPC – History
- EuroHPC JU – LEONARDO is inaugurated (24 November 2022)
- INFN – The new CNAF data center at the Bologna Technopole
- ECMWF – The new data centre in Bologna
- Regione Emilia-Romagna – Data Valley: the Technopole becomes DAMA (2025)
- IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli – The Rizzoli Hospital: presentation
- IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli – The Rizzoli in history
Sources checked on 26 October 2026. Official documents are linked, not republished.