INFN was founded on 8 August 1951 to further the nuclear physics research tradition initiated by
Enrico Fermi in
Rome in the 1930s. The INFN collaborates with
CERN,
Fermilab and various other laboratories in the world. In recent years it has provided important contributions to
grid computing. During the latter half of the 1950s, the INFN designed and constructed the first Italian electron accelerator—the
electron synchrotron developed in
Frascati. In the early 1960s, it also constructed in Frascati the first ever electron-positron
collider (
ADA -
Anello Di Accumulazione), under the scientific leadership of
Bruno Touschek. In 1968, Frascati began operating
ADONE (
big AdA), which was the first high-energy
particle collider, having a beam energy of 1.5 GeV. During the same period, the INFN began to participate in research into the construction and use of ever-more powerful accelerators being conducted at
CERN. The INFN has
Sezioni (Divisions) in most major
Italian universities and four national laboratories. It has personnel of its own, but it is mostly the main funding agency for high-energy physics in Italy. University personnel can be affiliated with INFN and receive from it research grants. ==Laboratories==