The Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Natural and Humanistic Sciences (Laboratorio Interdisciplinare Scienze Naturali e Umanistiche) was founded in 1989 to experiment new links between science and humanities and investigate the various aspects of science and society issues. Its main aim is to explore intercultural connections among art, ethics, history, philosophy and science.

Since 1993, the Interdisciplinary Laboratory has been running a Masters Course in Science Communication, which has formed more than 250 scientific journalists, press officers, museum curators and actors in the field.

Within the Interdisciplinary Laboratory, the Innovations in the Communication of Science group (ICS) is one of the few Italian groups focused exclusively on research in science communication. ICS contributes to the production of JCOM - Journal of Science Communication and to the organization of the National Italian Conference on Science Communication.

The Interdisciplinary Laboratory has been involved in several European projects, such as SCIRAB (Science in Radio Broadcasting), DOTIK (European Training for Young Scientists and Museums Explainers), GAPP (Gender Awareness Participation Process) and ESConet, the European Science Communication Network focused on original communication training workshops for scientists.

The Interdisciplinary Laboratory has coordinated the FP7 Health project bid - brains in dialogue, aimed at fostering the dialogue among key stakeholders in neuroscience and raising public engagement.

Presently, the Interdisciplinary Laboratory is involved in the Europen project CommHERE as national coordinator for Italy. The goals are to build a network of EU-funded research projects, organize educational activities and initiate a CommNet within the Theme "Health".