Phen-Italy, officially known as the Italian Plant Phenotyping Joint Research Unit (JRU), is coordinated by the National Research Council (CNR) in collaboration with ALSIA. It brings together several universities, public research institutions, and public-private consortia, forming a national network dedicated to advancing plant phenotyping research and infrastructure in Italy.

Phen-Italy serves as the national reference point for the European research infrastructure EMPHASIS (European Infrastructure for Multi-scale Plant Phenotyping And Simulation for Food and Security in Changing Climate), part of the ESFRI roadmap. EMPHASIS aims to develop and implement advanced phenotyping platforms that are accessible to the entire European scientific community, supporting research in sustainable agriculture and food security under changing climate conditions.

Phen-Italy’s mission is to foster collaboration among research groups working on high-throughput plant phenotyping, especially for crops relevant to the agri-food sector. It provides access to the only high-throughput phenotyping infrastructure available in Italy and Southern Europe, as well as the region’s only aerial fleet dedicated to remote sensing of agroecosystems.