ENEA - Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development

CRESCO8 is the ENEA new supercomputer equipped with computational capabilities capable to support research and development in strategic sectors like fusion energy, climate change, artificial intelligence and advanced materials. 

Inaugurated at the ENEA Research Center in Portici (Naples), the CRESCO family supercomputer is housed ina 150-square-meter dedicated facility designed to maximize its efficiency. Universities, research institutions and companies will be able to access the supercomputer to conduct projects requiring advanced HPC (High Performance Computing) resources.

Accelerating the development, production and qualification of new nuclear materials for innovative reactors by integrating modern digital technologies and sound scientific practices is the goal of the CONNECT-NM partnership, co-funded by the European Commission and coordinated by CIEMAT, with ENEA engaged as both a partner and the Italian Programme Manager, with the tasks of materials testing, implementing a certification system and developing guidelines and protocols for critical environment testing and characterization of liquid lead materials for future Lead-cooled Fast Reactors (LFRs).

A team of ENEA researchers has conducted a study highlighting a potential molecular mechanism underlying Parkinson’s disease - a condition that affects neurons in the brain- which still lacks specific treatments. The research used the ENEA CRESCO supercomputer to perform advanced simulations aimed at predicting and understanding the impact of genetic mutations on the disease and identifying possible therapeutic targets.

Several EU countries regularly collect data on industrial energy efficiency through energy audits and energy management systems. However, these data are not always leveraged for strategic or systemic evaluations. This is among the key findings of two studies conducted by ENEA and the German Energy Agency (DENA), as part of LEAPto11, a European project involving ten national energy agencies. The project supports institutions and businesses in implementing the EU Energy Efficiency Directive.

A study conducted by ENEA, in collaboration with the University of Tuscia and the company ILIP, aimed at promoting food safety and quality, reducing the environmental impact of the distribution chain and enhancing the value of Italian agri-food products, showed that packaging made with essential oils and other natural substances can keep Favette strawberries fresh for up to 12 days. The study was published in the international journals Frontiers in Microbiology, Journal of Microbiological Methods and the MDPI.

ENEA and the Emilia-Romagna region have signed an agreement to train drone pilots for critical operations. The courses will be held at the Exadrone Flight Academy of the ENEA Research Center in Brasimone (Bologna), the first public institution certified by the ENAC [1] and among the largest in Italy for critical time operation training [2] for environmental monitoring, civil protection, security, inspections and infrastructure control.