In 2016, the Italian Government nominated the area of the former Manifattura Tabacchi (a tobacco factory) as the new headquarters for the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The following year the Government ratified the International Headquarters Agreement.

This agreemente paved the way to the construction of a new technology hub (the Dama technopole), focused on the development of supercomputing and Big Data, with applications to challenges related to climate change, sustainability, health, industrial production, and social sciences.