The CNIT is a national consortium for telecommunications composed by 37 universities over the Italian territory specialized in advanced education and research activities. The CNIT is a centre of excellence in the telecommunication sector. The CNIT was constituted on January 10^th 1995 and it was legally recognized by the Italian Ministry of University and Research on March 4^th 1997. The president of the consortium is Prof. Giancarlo Prati from the Photonic Networks Lab in San Cataldo (Pisa), while the Director is Prof. Silvano Pupolin from the Dept. of Electronics and Informatics of the University of Padova.

The consortium aims to promote the basic research and all the applications to ICT fields by coordinating the activities among all the associated universities with particular attention to the design and testing of innovative projects. The CNIT promote the collaboration between the member universities and other university educational institutes as well as technical and scientific collaborations with national and international research institutes and industries.   

In order to promote the communication the CNIT has built up an own satellite network qualified as “autonomous system”. All the member universities will be linked by this network within 2007. The satellite network is used for research activities as well as experimental services such as tele-education.

One of the main goal of the consortium is to develop a concerted action in order to provide an interdisciplinary support to those who work in the designing, implementation and management of equipments, telecommunication systems and services with the possibility to extend the initiatives worldwide. Particular attention is paid to the research in the telecommunication field and all the related electromagnetism areas, in accordance to national and international research programs.

Another important field action is the organization of educational activities in order to qualify, specialize or reconvert the professionalism in the telecommunication field. This activity includes also the promotion of scientific disseminations. Every action is always played under an university point-of-view, and, consequently, a particular attention is paid to the educational development of Ph.D.s and expertise researchers even by funding scholarships.

The CNIT is organized in different operative structures, including Research Units (RU) and National Labs (NL). The RUs are normally constituted in the member universities with a specific convention act which rules the functions of the RU inside the hosting Department. Each RU can include both university personnel, consortium employs and scholarship students.

The NLs are structures owned directly by the CNIT and they play an intensive research activity (design and implementation areas) on a national and international base. Nowadays two NLs are active: the National Lab of Multimedia Communications in Naples and the Photonic Networks Lab in Pisa.

The National Lab of Multimedia Communications in Naples was funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research as part of the LABNET project, in order to improve the scientific networks in depressive areas. The Photonic Networks Lab in Pisa was funded by Marconi Communications (now Ericsson), the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, the CNIT and the CNR (National Consortium for Research).