Dear readers, it has been a really difficult year: Italy has had to face, like many other nations, a terrible war against an invisible and insidious enemy. Many of our fellow citizens have left us, in silence.
With a rough mathematical calculation, one might think that the destructive "power" of a pandemic is far greater than that of an earthquake and that, therefore, the latter are a far lesser problem. But, unfortunately, this is not the case for the many who in a natural event have seen their loved ones and their lives turned upside down and who, still years later, tens of thousands still live in "temporary" homes, suffering, moreover, day the demographic and economic fraying of their communities day after day.
Even an earthquake lasts for decades due to the damage it causes: this must motivate us even more to make ourselves useful to the nation, to help in the reconstruction and to work towards making Italy capable of withstanding future earthquakes with ever less effects. INGV, with the generous and constant availability of the people who are part of it, is contributing to the definition of active faults to speed up the reconstruction work in central Italy, as has already been done recently on the flank of Etna.
With its ten active volcanoes, Italy has a very serious volcanic hazard and the Institute is an international reference for expertise and infrastructure.
After the Aeolian Monitoring Center, born last year and which is developing as desired in particular for the activities on Stromboli, this year the Earth Space Observation Center was created which will see INGV in various activities for the space weather, including monitoring the planet with satellite technologies.
Environmental issues are in the daily life of all of us; INGV has the mission of studying the structure of the Earth and understanding its functioning mechanisms: as a public research body in the geosciences it therefore has the honor and the burden of contributing to making Italy more resilient to natural hazards, protect and enhance its resources, to spread the culture of knowledge and respect for nature. The three thematic Departments of the Organization are aware protagonists of this exciting responsibility.
Great pride was the use of all possible technology to allow the Institute to react immediately to the social lockdown: the seismic and volcanic monitoring operations rooms have never stopped being at maximum efficiency; laboratory, field and administrative activities have never stopped, even with all the difficulties imposed by the pandemic. Agile working, from an opportunity for an employment relationship, has turned into a vital necessity for the functionality of the Authority, revolutionizing the way employees work.
The open data policy has become a reality and after a long process, INGV shares a large part of the scientific data with the entire international community on a dedicated portal.
Furthermore, 2020 saw the association with the GARR network (Group for the Harmonization of Research Networks), the Italian ultra-broadband network dedicated to the education, research and culture community, a goal that will allow the Institute to accelerate the ongoing digital revolution.
A heartfelt and dutiful "Thank you" to all the staff of the Institute for what they have been able to do even in this anomalous and dramatic period: scientific production has been the highest ever achieved by the institute in terms of number of publications.
I wish everyone a much better new year.
Carlo Doglioni