New laboratories for research at the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant'Anna School thanks to the BRIEF project, financed with PNRR funds
The new area, covering an area of approximately 315 square metres, will host 40 workstations and state-of-the-art equipment in the field of biorobotics

The BioRobotics Institute of the Sant'Anna School in Pisa is inaugurating the new research laboratories for the activities of the BRIEF ‘Biorobotics research and Innovation Engineering Facilities’ project financed with PNRR funds. This is a renovation project on a space in the Institute's headquarters previously occupied by the guest quarters. The new area, covering an area of approximately 315 square metres, will house four working groups (approximately 40 workstations), a meeting room, a management office, a relaxation area and two bathroom blocks located at the east and west ends of the floor.
The inauguration of the new laboratories took place on Thursday 19 December in the presence of the Rector of the Sant'Anna School Sabina Nuti and the Director of the Institute of BioRobotics Cesare Stefanini.
BRIEF, the PNRR project to upgrade the infrastructure of the Sant'Anna School
The BRIEF project (Biorobotics research and Innovation Engineering Facilities, financed with PNRR funds, Mission 4, ‘Education and Research’, Component 2, ‘From research to enterprise’, Investment Line 3. 1 ‘Fund for the realisation of an integrated system of research and innovation infrastructures’, financed by the European Union - NextGenerationEU) was set up with the aim of enriching the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna's existing infrastructure by enlarging its coordination network and enhancing its laboratories with state-of-the-art instrumentation, with the aim of guaranteeing broader, simplified and harmonised access to the best research facilities in Italy and Europe in the field of biorobotics.
Research activities planned in the new laboratories
A space entirely dedicated to hosting researchers coming to Sant'Anna School to use the BRIEF laboratories and instrumentation for their research activities in the field of Biorobotics has been created in the new area. Access to the infrastructure by researchers from outside the School is in fact, together with the recruitment of technicians and technologists highly specialised in robotic technologies, a priority element of the BRIEF project.
The new spaces will also host laboratories for the study of neural correlations in movement disorders; the computational analysis and simulation of high-complexity models of biological systems and smart materials using high-performance computing facilities for data storage and analysis; brain models for motor control and cognitive skills in next-generation autonomous robots.