Over 1000 students, from more than 60 schools, are taking part this year in the 2025–2026 edition of the Lab2Go project of the INFN National Institute for Nuclear Physics, which today, 27 November 2025, from 3.30 p.m., launches the physics pathway with the national opening event. The event will be held in person in the Amaldi Lecture Hall of the Department of Physics of Sapienza University of Rome, for schools in the Lazio region, and online for those taking part in the Lab2Go-Physics project from other Italian regions. In particular, there will be connections from Abruzzo, Basilicata, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Molise, Sicily, Tuscany and Veneto. During the event, which will be attended by around 500 students and 50 teachers from 30 schools from all over Italy, the project and the INFN facilities that will collaborate with the participating schools will be presented, and several seminars on laboratory-based teaching will be held.
Lab2Go is a project carried out by the INFN through the Third Mission Coordination Committee (CC3M), which supports public engagement projects promoted by the research community thanks to an internal peer-review process. The project, created in collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome, is aimed at the final three years of upper secondary schools, with the objective of bringing students closer to experimental science by enhancing school laboratories. The activities include the cataloguing and upgrading of the equipment available in schools, as well as the design of teaching experiments. Initiatives are also organised for sharing the knowledge acquired, such as the final feedback event, which features precisely the students who have taken part in the project. Thanks to the support of the INFN divisions and National Laboratories in collaboration with other institutions and university departments, the project also includes the repair of non-functioning equipment and the documentation of feasible experiences, promoting their dissemination within the network of schools participating in the project.
Born within the field of physics, Lab2Go has since developed into another six pathways active mainly in the Rome area: plant biology, animal biology, chemistry, museology, Earth sciences and robotics (currently not active). Contributing to these pathways as project partners, in addition to the INFN and Sapienza University of Rome, are CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics), SISS (Italian Society for the History of Science) and the Universities of Camerino, Florence and Milan. In particular, contributing to the 2025–2026 edition are the INFN associated groups of Cosenza and Udine, the INFN National Laboratories of Gran Sasso, the South and Legnaro, and the INFN divisions of Bari, Cagliari, Ferrara, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Pavia, Pisa, Rome, Rome Tor Vergata, Turin and Trieste.
