SPIRIT represents an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative (I3) funded by the European Commission. The main goal of SPIRIT is to grant public and industrial researchers from Europe free access to leading european ion beam facilities and R&D providers, which deliver ions in an energy range from ~10 keV up to 100 MeV for the modification and analysis of solid surfaces, interfaces, thin films and nanostructured systems. The main application areas are materials, biomedical and environmental research and technology.