ENEA is the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, a public body aimed at research, technological development and the provision of advanced services in support to public administrations, public and private enterprises, and citizens in the sectors of energy, the environment and sustainable economic development. ENEA focus sectors are energy technologies (renewable sources, energy storage, smart grids), nuclear fusion and nuclear safety, energy efficiency, technologies for cultural heritage, seismic protection, food safety, pollution, life sciences, strategic raw materials, climate change.
ENEA microbial collection has been created over 30 years by an interdepartmental team of researchers that has collected microbial strains (bacteria, fungi, microalgae, microbial consortia, virus) from different environments (contaminated sites, hypogea and archaeological sites, food, lake sediments, sea, soil, rhizosphere, water).
The microbial collection has several environmental applications: i) sustainability and protection (soil, bioremediation, restoration of artistic heritage, biorefinery), ii) plant disease suppression and plant growth promotion, iii) production of high-value and bio-based molecules for the development of a sustainable and circular bioeconomy (nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, pharmaceutical and green chemistry sectors), iv) a vegetable virus with applications in the biomedical sector, especially for the development of innovative vaccines, diagnostic systems and delivery of targeted cancer therapy.
In addition, molecular tools as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and metagenomic approaches have increased the detection of biodiversity in different environments. Actually, the off-line databases include information on the resources (identification, molecular characterization, phenotype characterization), their history (origin, source) and their practical management (storage).

Relevant projects

• SIMBA – Sustainable Innovation of MicroBiome Applications in Food Systems, Horizon 2020 Grant agreement No. 818431 (2018-2022).
• VALUEMAG – Valuable Products from Algae Using new Magnetic Cultivation and Extraction Techniques, Horizon 2020 Grant agreement No. 745695 (2017-2020).
• SUPREME – Developing tools for sustainable food production in Mediterranean area using microbes, ERANET-MED program (2017- 2020).
• ReBUS – Bio-utilizzo di risorse in situ per il supporto alla vita nello spazio – Bando di ricerca dell’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana ASI – Missioni future di esplorazione umana dello spazio, area tematica Sistemi Biorigenerativi (2020-2023).
• SOILSINK – Cambiamenti climatici e sistemi produttivi agricoli e forestali: impatto sulle riserve di carbonio e sulla diversità microbica del suolo FISR D.M. 17/12/02.
• BIOLINK – Linking belowground biodiversity and ecosystem function in European Forests COST ACTION FP1305.
• FOODFLAVOUR – Metodologie avanzate per garantire l’origine dei prodotti alimentari Made in Italy e studio di nuove tecnologie per il miglioramento della durata e delle qualità sensoriali – Progetti Industria 2015 – Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico (MISE).
• IDROBIO – Produzione di idrogeno da processi biologico. Bando FISR (2005-2008).
• FP7 UMBRELLA – Using MicroBes for the Regulation of heavy metaL mobiLity at ecosystem and landscape scAle: an integrative approach for soil remediation by geobiological processes, 7 Programma Quadro EU (2009-2012).
• FP7 GRAIL – Glycerol Biorefinery Approach for the Production of High Quality Products of Industrial Value, Grant agreement no. 613667 (2013-2017).
• Program Agreement ENEA – Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) on Research for Italian Electrical System, three-years plan 2011-2014 and 2015-2018.
• AZeRO ANTIBIOTICS – Evaluation of the presence of antibiotics in livestock manure and digestate of biogas plants: study of strategies for their removal n° 85-2017-15065 funded by Regione Lazio – Lazio Innova (Italy).
• COMETA Mediterranean autochthonous cultures and their valorisation by advanced technologies of green chemistry. PNR 2015-2020 (Italy).

Key persons
List to be completed.

• Dr. Massimo Iannetta
  Head of Biotechnologies and Agroindustry ENEA Division, Member of the General Assembly of MIRRI-IT.
• Dr. Annamaria Bevivino
  Head of AgriFood Sustainability, Quality and Safety ENEA Laboratory, Scientific coordinator and curator of ENEA microbial collection, Member of the Scientific Committee of MIRRI-IT.