The Istituto Nazionale di Apicoltura (INA - National Institute of Apiculture) has been working since 1931 to promote and implement initiatives aimed at increasing, optimising and disseminating beekeeping practices and beehive products.

The idea of a national institute was born in the 1920s against the regulatory backdrop created by law 562/26, which set forth provisions for the defence of apiculture. Despite its being de facto operational, it was not until 1933 that the provincial council of the corporations of Bologna, the Italian confederation of farmers and the Royal University of Bologna entered into an agreement to set up a consortium for the creation of a National Institute of Apiculture. Thanks to special funding provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests and the Bologna Savings Bank, the consortium successfully launched the INA, officially instituted by Royal Decree no. 1049 of 16 June 1938.

Thereafter the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests provided nearly all of the functional resources required for day-to-day activities, endowing the Institute with facilities and specifically trained laboratory personnel and enabling it to become the main point of reference in Italy for problems and issues related to beekeeping.

Since its foundation the INA has had its headquarters in the Department of Zooculture, Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bologna.

Since 1997 it has maintained a centre in Bologna, funded by the Ministry for Agricultural Policy, which boasts innovative labs and facilities geared toward meeting the needs for renewal within the beekeeping sector.

Since 1981 the Institute has also had an operating unit in Reggio Emilia, in a branch division of the University of Bologna Faculty of Agriculture (degree course in Animal Production Science). It includes a centre for the selection of Italian honeybees (Apis mellifera ligustica) and an instrumental insemination laboratory.

The OU was the first centre in Italy to specialise in the instrumental insemination of queen bees and to apply this technique in programmes for the genetic selection of honeybees. Over the years it has established fruitful partnerships with other organisations (Universities, local health care units, zooprophylactic institutes, beekeepers’ associations) in specific research projects, organisation and management of territorial disease prevention plans and provision of diagnostic services on behalf of beekeepers.

Since 1 October 2004 the Istituto Nazionale di Apicoltura has been a member of the CRA, Council for Research and Experimentation in Agriculture.