INRIM, with the Italian Quantum Backbone, cooperates with the most important European metrology institutes to the development of a fiber optics network aimed to disseminate a time and frequency reference with an accuracy largely improved with respect to the present satellite methods, for the benefit of industrial and scientific customers and partners.

Besides, it molds and then provides the national time standard, that represent the Italian legal reference for time. It is held in agreement with the Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) and INRIM contributes to the International Atomic Time (TAI) that is formed at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) in Paris. Furthermore, it supports the timing activities of the Galileo system, the European geo-positioning satellite network.