INRiM participates in Mission 4: Education and Research, Component 2: From Research to Business, Investment 1.3, “Creation of Extended Partnerships involving universities, research centres, and companies for the funding of basic research projects.” The measure aims to support large-scale basic and/or applied research programmes, characterized by an interdisciplinary, holistic, and problem-solving approach, carried out by broad networks of universities, public and private research institutions, and other highly qualified and internationally recognized research actors. The goal is to strengthen national research supply chains and promote their participation in strategic European and global value chains.
The RESTART Extended Partnership (RESearch and innovation on future Telecommunications systems and networks, to make Italy more smart) is the largest public R&D programme ever implemented in the telecommunications sector in Italy. The programme focuses on the main topics in telecommunications science and technology, covering all types of related systems and networks, both for human and non-human users. RESTART involves 26 partners and is structured into an Hub-and-Spoke organisation.
The ODEONS project (Optical DEvices for Optical Networks and Seismology), funded under the cascade call of Spoke 1 “Pervasive and Photonic Network Technologies and Infrastructures,” has been completed.
The consortium, coordinated by the University of Brescia, includes the University of Ferrara, the University of Naples Parthenope, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), SM Optics Srl, and INRiM.
ODEONS developed photonic tools and technologies to use optical fiber telecommunications networks as distributed sensors for seismic wave detection. This innovative approach could, in the future, enable global and pervasive Earth monitoring by leveraging the widespread coverage of data networks.
Within the project, INRiM’s main achievement was the design and development of a laser-based sensor prototype capable of measuring, with high sensitivity, deformations in optical fibers, from which ground motion can be inferred. The technology is based on high-coherence lasers and interferometric measurements, which INRiM has developed over the years for its institutional activities in the dissemination of time and frequency metrological signals over optical fiber. Thanks to these techniques, fibers can be used as sensors without interfering with normal data traffic. During the project, a sensor was successfully installed in the Campi Flegrei area, where it enabled the detection of even low-intensity seismic events.