Leonardi, O. Castro, G. Celona, L. Chines, F. Costanzo, G. Gammino, S. Malferrari, L. Massara, A. Maugeri, C. Neri, L. Odorici, F. Passarello, S. Reitano, R. Russo, F. Siliato, D. JACoW Publishing Geneva, Switzerland The Advanced Ion Source for Hadrontherapy (AISHa) is a compact electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) operating at 18 GHz designed and developed to generate high brightness multiply charged ion beams for hadrontherapy purposes. Its peculiarities make AISHa also a suitable choice for research and industrial applications. AISHa is able to produce more than 1400 µA O⁶⁺, 500 µA C⁴⁺, 5 mA He²⁺. In the framework of the INSpIRIT program and in collaboration with CNAO and GSI, new ion beam candidates for cancer treatment and material irradiation are being developed. A copy of the AISHa ion source is also being installed at CNAO to expand its potential in terms of ion beam production. AISHa is also the test-bench for several R&D activities to increase ion source performance and for non-invasive plasma diagnostic purposes: an innovative active plasma chamber designed to increase plasma confinement by modifying plasma losses fluxes is under study together with a dedicated Optical Emission Spectroscopy diagnostics setup. In this work, we will discuss the status of AISHa together with the description of the forthcoming developments and perspectives.