The University of Florence is an important and influential centre for research and higher training in Italy, with 1,800 lecturers and internal research staff, 1,600 technical and administrative staff, and over 1,600 research assistants and doctoral students.
The University of Florence has a natural international vocation and the development of internationalization is one of its strategic priorities. IIt is one of the largest and most productive public research systems in Italy. This result is accomplished thanks to the number of permanent and temporary researchers working in a wide range of disciplinary and scientific fields, and the numerous junior scientists in training. It is also due to an intensive participation in research programmes of national and international relevance and to the significant scientific results achieved. External funds support the research and knowledge transfer activities. This combination of factors qualifies the Florentine institution as a modern research university and accounts for its excellent position in national and world rankings. Researchers at the University of Florence operate within 24 different departments and have at their disposal approximately 40 research structures comprising inter-departmental and inter-university centres as well as specialised research, knowledge transfer and advanced training centres.

In recent years the University of Florence has increasingly consolidated its ventures in the field of knowledge transfer: from the filing of patents to the setting up of joint workshops with businesses, through to participation in spin-off companies. Knowledge transfer activities are coordinated by CSAVRI (Centro di Servizi di Ateneo per la Valorizzazione della Ricerca e la gestione dell’Incubatore universitario), the centre for the enhancement of research and management of the university’s incubator.

Currently, the department participating in ELIXIR is the Dep. of Biology  (ComBo, Florence Computational Biology Group).