Five research projects involving the National Institute for Astrophysics, INAF, have been funded under Italy's 2026 national research program, known as PRIN, which allocates grants through the Ministry of University and Research. The institute leads two of the projects, each with a budget above one million euros, and takes part in three more as a research unit. The success rate for the call was below five percent, which makes the result a notable outcome for Italian astrophysics.
The first project led by INAF, called Apex, is coordinated by Gianluca Israel from the Rome headquarters. It applies artificial intelligence to high-energy astrophysics and to the study of magnetic fields in compact objects such as neutron stars. The team includes researchers from the Politecnico di Milano and the universities of Padua, Bologna and Cagliari, and the project has been awarded 1.08 million euros.
The second INAF-led project, AstroMinds, is headed by Marcella Massardi in Bologna. It focuses on using artificial intelligence to identify unexpected signals in astronomical data, and it draws on expertise from neuroscience. Partners include the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, along with groups in Trento and Trieste. The project receives 1.2 million euros over a three-year period.
INAF also contributes as a partner to three further projects. Cerco-Gemme, which ranked first in its evaluation panel, investigates where black holes detected through gravitational waves come from, using data from the Ligo, Virgo and Kagra detectors and planned observations from the Rubin Observatory. Et-Star prepares site studies in Sardinia for the proposed Einstein Telescope, a next-generation gravitational-wave observatory. A third project, Unlocking the Full Cosmological Information, is coordinated by Luigi Guzzo and examines recent hints from the DESI survey that dark energy may not be constant, drawing on data from the Euclid and Roman missions.