Guido Venosta and AIRC – The Great Initiatives: the FIRC Research Units

In 1982, Guido Venosta, President of AIRC, promoted alongside the Association the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research (FIRC) as an asset-holding entity designed to secure a guaranteed flow of funds for oncological research over time. Once a certain asset solidity was achieved, FIRC began supporting, among other systematic projects of great scope and significance, several initiatives. The first of these was the establishment of the FIRC Research Units—the first initiative of its kind in Italy. These are scientific clusters established, monitored, and directly financed by the Foundation for at least five years at the country’s leading research centers (the first were set up in Milan at the National Tumor Institute, the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), and the Faculty of Medicine of the State University). The Research Units focus on a specific advanced theme, dedicating themselves exclusively to that area and therefore concentrating their efforts on “the most promising objectives of the new frontiers in oncology.”

Bibliography:
G. VENOSTA, Dal profit al nonprofit. Storia di un’esperienza, Milan, 1997, pp. 18–19.