For more than forty years, the Adriatico Guesthouse in Trieste has hosted the visiting scientists of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). On Friday in New York, it was announced that Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo had purchased the building on ICTP’s behalf, securing it for the Centre’s long-term use.

The purchase brings ICTP one step closer to its vision of transforming the Adriatico into an International Science Complex, at the heart of the Centre’s five-year strategic plan. The foundation bought the building on ICTP’s behalf because the Centre’s international statute prevents it from owning buildings.

The acquisition and transformation are funded by a 15 million dollars matching grant from Simons Foundation International. The Friuli Venezia Giulia Region has pledged 4.25 million euros, and ICTP 2.0, the Centre’s own fundraising campaign, has already raised more than 8 million euros.

For Marco Gilli, President of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, the project “brings philanthropic and public resources together around a shared goal: keeping science open, accessible, and connected across borders.” David Spergel, President of Simons Foundation International, remarked that “the Adriatico Guesthouse is such an important part of ICTP’s collaborative culture, and we’re thrilled that this acquisition will make it a permanent part of the centre.” While Friuli Venezia Giulia President Massimiliano Fedriga stressed that the Region’s commitment reflects “a clear strategic choice: to strengthen Trieste’s role as an international hub for science, cooperation and knowledge”.

The Adriatico hosts more than 40 percent of the lectures and seminars ICTP organizes. With the acquisition, the Centre can now invest directly in it as a long-term scientific home, with 100 guest rooms, a cafeteria, lecture rooms, laboratories and offices. An international architecture competition will select the redesign, which will transform it into an integrated hub combining research, education and collaboration.

Italy has hosted and supported ICTP since Nobel laureate Abdus Salam founded it in 1964, and for more than 60 years the Centre has promoted sustainable science in the developing world. Today Trieste, the regional capital, is home to the largest concentration of scientists in Italy.

The announcement came on the same day Friuli Venezia Giulia showcased Trieste at United Nations Headquarters as an international ecosystem where scientific excellence, international cooperation and science diplomacy are closely interconnected. Fedriga presented the region’s science and innovation assets and the project for a new UNESCO hub in Trieste. “Our ambition is not simply to open a new center,” he said, noting that the project has received the support of UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany, who visited Trieste last June. “The goal is to create a permanent platform where scientific institutions, international organizations and public authorities can collaborate, develop new programs and strengthen the city’s role as a global reference point for research.”

Introduced by Italy’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Giorgio Marrapodi, Fedriga also linked this vision to the IMEC corridor, set to connect India, the Middle East and Europe, in which Friuli Venezia Giulia can become a strategic junction thanks to its geographic position, its ports and its rail infrastructure.