Intacture: data centre beneath the mountain officially opened
The 50-million project in Val di Non (of which 18 million comes from the NRRP) has been finalised by Trentino DataMine, a company resulting from a public-private partnership that includes the University of Trento
Trentino DataMine (a company established as a public-private partnership between the University of Trento, Covi Costruzioni, Dedagroup, Gruppo Gpi and Isa – the South Tyrolean Development Institute) has officially inaugurated the Intacture data centre in Val di Non, in the municipality of Predaia, in Trentino: situated inside a dolomite mine that is still in operation, at a depth of around one hundred metres, it is now fully operational.
The figures from the construction site illustrate the scale of the project: 63,000 cubic metres of rock excavated and reused, 54.4 kilometres of cables laid in the first phase alone, and 3.1 kilometres of pipework. The ‘fornello’ – the vertical shaft connecting the above-ground office block to the server rooms – is forty metres deep. The two operational tunnels extend for one hundred and seventy metres, with a height of 7 metres and a width of 12 metres.
Since Trentino DataMine was established in September 2023, the project has been completed in just over two years: design, bespoke excavation of the new underground spaces, civil engineering works, installation of technological systems and testing. Following the completion of mining operations in 2024, the infrastructure was built and the technological systems commissioned during 2025.
The impetus of the PNRR
In December 2025, following successful testing and the installation of the supercomputing cluster, the data centre had completed its construction. On 30 April 2026, Intacture became the first project under Mission 4: Education and Research, Component 2, Investment 3.1 of the NRRP to have reported on 100% of the allocated funds. Public funding of €18.4 million, out of a total financial commitment of over €50 million.
Business competitiveness
“For the University of Trento, contributing to the launch of Intacture meant taking on a twofold challenge: meeting the tight deadlines of the NRRP and experimenting with a corporate and business model that is unprecedented for a university. Through a concrete synergy between the public and private sectors, we have transformed the allocated resources into an operational infrastructure that boosts the competitiveness of businesses and the local economy,” commented Flavio Deflorian, President of Trentino DataMine and Rector of the University of Trento.
