INFN-LNF Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
On 1 October 2026, the new four-year Horizon Europe project HADRON-2030 officially got underway, with the INFN Frascati National Laboratory playing a central role. The project brings together the European hadron and nuclear physics community to investigate the strong interaction and its role in shaping visible matter.
LNF is the INFN coordinator within the project, contributing to the management of the project and to its scientific, technological and dissemination activities. The Laboratory is also among the infrastructures involved in the project’s Transnational Access programme, strengthening its role in providing the international community with access to advanced experimental capabilities.
Coordinated by the French CNRS, HADRON-2030 brings together 49 beneficiary organisations from 15 countries, supported by 86 additional participating institutions. The project connects universities, national laboratories, accelerator centres and international research organisations, creating an integrated framework for experimental, theoretical and computational research.
The strong interaction, described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD), is responsible for binding quarks and gluons into protons, neutrons and other hadrons, and for binding nucleons inside atomic nuclei. Understanding its behaviour is essential for studying the structure and mass of hadrons, nuclear matter under extreme conditions, neutron stars, and precision tests of the Standard Model. HADRON-2030 will address these questions across a broad scientific programme covering precision hadron physics, spectroscopy, nuclear structure, strongly interacting matter at extreme conditions, nuclear astrophysics and the three-dimensional structure of hadrons.
A central component of the project is Transnational Access to 15 experimental and theoretical facilities across Europe and beyond, including major accelerator and research infrastructures as well as the INFN laboratories. Researchers will also have access to virtual services for QCD calculations, lattice simulations, partial-wave analysis and other advanced computational tools, together with opportunities to explore quantum computing and artificial intelligence applications in hadron physics.
The project places particular emphasis on training and mobility, with schools, workshops, internships, exchange visits and hands-on activities designed for doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, engineers and technical staff. It will also promote the development of advanced detectors, electronics, data-acquisition systems and computational technologies, with potential applications beyond fundamental research, including medical imaging, radiation monitoring and industrial technologies.
HADRON-2030 builds on the achievements of STRONG-2020, extending its scientific programme and infrastructure network in line with the priorities identified in the NuPECC Long Range Plan 2024. By connecting facilities, technologies and scientific communities across Europe, HADRON-2030 aims to create a common research environment for the next generation of hadron and nuclear physics.
HADRON-2030 receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101292522.