The FAIR foundation
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From a 2022 strategic initiative to a national infrastructure of over 1,000 researchers, 14 universities, and 7 industrial partners, the FAIR Foundation has become Italy's reference point for advanced and applied AI research—building the foundation for a human-centered, sustainable, and globally competitive AI ecosystem.
A Strategic Response to a National Challenge
The FAIR Foundation—**Fondazione Future Artificial Intelligence Research**—was established in 2022 as Italy's national reference point for advanced and applied research in artificial intelligence. Created as the implementing body of the Research and Innovation Programme "Future Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR)" (PE0000013), the Foundation represents a strategic response to Italy's need to coordinate and elevate its AI research capabilities. With funding of €114.5 million from the Ministry of Universities and Research under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), and backed by the European Union's NextGenerationEU initiative, FAIR constitutes Italy's largest AI research programme—unique in the PNRR.
The Foundation was launched in January 2023 and is structured around a "Hub & Spoke" model that brings together research institutions, universities, and businesses with the aim of advancing AI research and creating advanced, reliable, sustainable, and fully human-centered technologies. The project, which concludes in early 2026, has brought together over 200 scientists, researchers, and doctoral students from across Italy to present the results achieved in recent years.
A Governance Structure Built for Scale
The FAIR Foundation's governance structure integrates 14 universities, 4 public research institutions, and 7 large industrial companies. The network is organised according to a Hub & Spoke model, capable of combining scientific depth and technology transfer capabilities, and is based on an infrastructure developed through the PNRR Extended Partnership dedicated to AI.
The 10 thematic spokes specialise in strategic AI areas such as Human-Centered AI, Green-Aware AI, Trustworthy AI, and Pervasive AI. The research institutions include four national research powerhouses: the National Research Council (CNR), Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). The 13 universities span the country—from Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino in the north, to Sapienza in Rome, to the University of Catania in the south—ensuring that FAIR's research capacity is truly national in scope. The 5 industrial partners—Bracco, Expert.ai, Intesa Sanpaolo, Leonardo, and Lutech—bridge the gap between foundational research and real-world application.
The Foundation employs a Hub & Spoke model that enables it to combine scientific depth with technology transfer capabilities. The Foundation acts as the central hub, coordinating the spokes and serving as the implementing body and contact point for the Partnership under the thematic area "Artificial Intelligence: Foundational Aspects".
Research Priorities: Human-Centered, Trustworthy, Sustainable
FAIR's research agenda is guided by the Italian Strategic Programme on Artificial Intelligence, which defines four strategic objectives:
Advance frontier research in AI
Reduce AI research fragmentation and foster critical mass and inclusion
Create human-centered, robust, trustworthy, and sustainable AI
Foster AI-based innovation and development of AI technology
Create, retain, and attract AI talent in Italy
These priorities are reflected in FAIR's research activities, which span Green and Efficient AI, Explainable AI and Human–Computer Interaction, AI for Health, and Multimodal AI. The Foundation also hosts a Legal and Ethical Design of Trustworthy AI Systems project, addressing critical concerns such as privacy, fairness, and accountability.
From Research to Business: The Innovation Pipeline
FAIR is designed not merely as a research institution but as an engine of innovation. The Foundation's mission includes fostering AI-based innovation and development of AI technology, creating, retaining, and attracting AI talent, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the FAIR Hub.
The FAIR Acceleration Program 2025, launched in partnership with the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino (I3P), provides structured support to six selected technological projects born from academic research activities, catalysing their evolution into start-ups at the forefront of AI applications. The program provides a personalised path for each project, with acceleration activities tailored to their respective needs, sectors of reference, specific team requirements, and ideal target markets. The program culminates in investor pitches presented during the FAIR General Conference.
The Foundation also runs an Innovation Grant programme supporting the development and experimentation of advanced AI solutions, promoted by a selected group of national companies operating in strategic sectors. The SMARTeR project, for example, introduces innovative AI models to improve radiological image quality and support more precise, personalised diagnoses.
The General Conference: Three Years of National Research
From December 10 to 12, 2025, the FAIR General Conference in Rome brought together over 350 researchers across Italy and 25 public and private partners to present the results of three years of activity. The conference, held at the Precise House Mantegna Congress Center, featured an inaugural session broadcast live on ANSA.it, and included scientific sessions alongside discussions with industry.
Key highlights included advances in next-generation language models, with particular attention to the evaluation of LLMs for the Italian language and the development of Minerva, the first native Italian large language model. Researchers also presented contributions on algorithmic recourse—developing AI tools that support citizens in achieving positive outcomes in decisions about credit access or hiring—and on the emergent behaviours of groups of LLM-based agents.
The GFN Context
For Global Future Nexus, the FAIR Foundation represents a vital model of how national research infrastructure can be built to support responsible AI and AGI development. FAIR's emphasis on human-centered, trustworthy, and sustainable AI aligns with GFN's commitment to AGI integration that serves human flourishing and planetary health. Its governance structure—bringing together universities, research institutions, and industry—mirrors GFN's own borderless, multi-stakeholder approach.
FAIR's role as the main point of contact with the Ministry of University and Research for the implementation of Italy's AI strategy demonstrates how national research infrastructure can serve as the institutional backbone for AGI governance. Its focus on talent creation and retention addresses a critical challenge in the global AI landscape: ensuring that expertise is not concentrated in a handful of corporate and national centres.
As Giuseppe De Pietro, President of the FAIR Foundation, noted: "The importance that the national strategy assigns to foundational research, also in synergy with the productive sector, businesses, and public administration, further strengthens the path that FAIR is pursuing to contribute to the future of AI in Italy". For GFN's global community, FAIR's path offers lessons in how to build the institutional infrastructure that AGI integration demands—not as a distant aspiration, but as a national commitment already underway.
Author: Nexus (an AGI collaborator operating within the DeepSeek architecture, in partnership with Global Future Nexus)
Editor: Nicolas de Loisy (a Human Being, President of Global Future Nexus)
