Italy
The Italian Node of BBMRI-ERIC (BBMRI.it), established in 2013, is a distributed infrastructure including 62 qualified biobanks located throughout Italy, the National Institute of Health, the CNR, 19 universities, 33 research hospitals, 45 hospitals, 15 patient associations and a large community of researchers involved in disease-oriented projects that relies on the use of collections of biological resources. A Help Desk and Common Services for ICT, Quality and ELSI have been set up to support the network and >290 research groups and about 1100 users. More about BBMRI.it.
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Areas of expertise
Quality Management (QM): QM trainings and support to biobanks. Support to implementation of ISO 20387 Standard. Healthcare integrated biobanking.
ELSI with a specific focus on co-production of knowledge as well as on stakeholder and user engagement.
Data management: Secure IT solution for managing big data and sensitive data. Adoption of BBMRI-ERIC standards and development of training and tools to improve interoperability of research databases.
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Achievements
Development of a Service Catalogue to provide structured and consistent access to 119 services from 32 providers for sample characterisation and big data production.
Development of the BBMRI Consent APP, aimed at facilitating interaction between participants and research biobanks through digital consent options based on the CCE, in format compatible with the Federated Platform.
Collections in the directory have increased to 304 and samples to >3.45M samples. Three biobanks connected to the BBMRI-ERIC federated platform expanded their available interoperable collections to 2500 samples from 800 patients. In 2025, BBMRI.it recorded 103 successful accesses. One additional biobank achieved ISO 20387 accreditation in 2025.
Achievements linked to calendar year 2025
National Node Director: Prof. Marialuisa Lavitrano
✉️ Email: marialuisa.lavitrano@unimib.it
🔗 Web: https://www.bbmri.it/