ELETTRA is very honoured to be the managing facility of the new Integrated Infrastructure Initiative (I3) "Integrating Activity on Synchrotron and Free Electron Laser Science" (IA-SFS), a program for research cooperation involving 16 laboratories and institutions throughout Europe. This corresponds to the world largest network of synchrotron and FEL facilities.

The I3 Project IA-SFS is supported by the European Community - Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 "Structuring the European Research Area" Programme.

The initiative has two strategic objectives:

• to support transnational users of national facilities in the domain of synchrotron and FEL science;
• to support joint research activities (JRAs) with the purpose of (i) enhancing the effectiveness of the facilities in serving users and in particular transnational users, and (ii) contributing to the development of novel sources in this domain.

The access and research initiatives are complemented and enhanced by targeted networking activities:

• The I3 Project IA-SFS will continue the Round Table support for specialized workshops, meetings and schools with the objectives to (i) stimulate new ideas for transnational collaboration, and (ii) prepare new generations of users.
• The I3 Project IA-SFS will also support transnational exchanges between facilities and user institutions.

The initiative is based on the very solid record of success of transnational access contracts at individual facilities in the past decade, of the coordinating role of the European Round Table for Synchrotron Radiation and Free Electron Lasers, and of several instrumentation collaboration projects.

In March 2010, selected Transnational Access experiments have been inserted in a published brochure prepared by the network of all FP6 I3 projects (i3-NET FP6 project)