The Superconducting RF group at Laboratorio Acceleratori e Superconduttività Applicata (LASA) of INFN Milano started its activities in the 90’s. As founder of the TESLA collaboration, we actively participated in the Tesla Test Facility, contributing to the high brightness electron source with Cs₂Te photocathodes, SRF cavities, cryomodule, cryomodule diagnostic and ancillaries. We then enlarged our competences to proton SRF cavities in different projects from the Italian TRASCO, the European ADS program to the design of the American SNS cavities. Thanks to all these competences, we made a further step forward and we joined European XFEL as co-leader of the 1.3 GHz cavities series production, cryomodules and tuners. In the Eu-XFEL context, we also designed, produced, installed, and commissioned a fully operational 3.9 GHz cryomodule, the first module in operation in the whole linac. The know-how on cavity design, prototyping, and testing has been then applied to the In-Kind contribution to the ESS project and, recently, to the PIP-II project where medium and low beta SRF cavities for proton have been required. Concurrently, we have continued the activities on photocathodes developing systems for the photocathode production, transport, and installation in the major high brightness user facilities worldwide. The INFN plug is becoming recognized worldwide as a standard and the performance of the Cs₂Te, with lifetime up to 4 years in user operation make them the state-of-the-art reference for the photocathode community.

The talk will provide an overview of the main competences, achievements, and experiences of the SRF group, describing our activities both in the R&D and production fields, with a look at future activities as well.