The Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) (National Institute for Nuclear Physics) is the coordinating institution for nuclear, particle and astroparticle physics in Italy. It 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.