CEO and Research Director. PhD in Complex Systems Engineering. Graduated in engineering, 20 years exerience in Technology Transfer. The expertise focuses on the analysis of impact of innovation policies and strategies. Furthermore, Francesco is the director of the “Responsible Research and Innovation Lab” within the DASIC of the Link Campus University. Francesco has actively been engaged in the modelling of innovation ecosystems and strategies, through different fields of application. Public services, socio-economic environments and social innovation constitute the main contributes in the research and innovation dynamics, respectively in the key assignments: member of the advisory board of IESI Mapping project, scientific manager of the HUB-IT project, cross-sectoral exploitation manager of MARINA-RRI project, the NET-EUCEN network manager, the MAESTRO project manager, the Democratic and Disruptive Social Innovation Community manager. All the key assignments are based on the application of user centricity, open science and social sustainability methodologies.
Marianna Rapisarda
Policy Analyst and Communication Director. Majored in Diplomacy and International Relations and holds a master degree in Geopolitics. After a few years working as researcher in defence and environmental geopolitics, she took a master degree in Project Management for non for profit organizations. She started as consultant focusing on proposal writing and fundraising, then she switched into grant and administrative management. As financial manager, she worked in national (Italian) and international programmes (Youth in Action, LIFE+, Horizon2020 and Interregional programmes such as Greece-Italy, IPA Adriatic and others) with specific role of reporting expenditures and progresses and supervising administrative procedures in purchases and coordinating human resources (hiring procedures, contracts, payrolls etc). Marianna has also experience in developing strategies with high impact on society and the environment focusing on sustainability and innovation.
Technology Transfer and Innovation Manager. Senior Innovation manager, master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Bologna (2001), is a business & innovation manager and evaluator of R&D funding applications for the EIT RawMaterials (https://eitrawmaterials.eu/ ) and 2 Italian regions. He has gained 17+ years’ experience at Innova srl, a leading company related to innovation management and technology transfer, in building and managing international multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial consortia EU-funded (FP5-FP7, H2020). He has delivered 350+ training hours delivered regarding innovation management, technology transfer, project management, grants applications development, IP management and exploitation. Recognized for his interdisciplinary thinking, leadership and managerial experience, he has been advisor to start-ups and SMEs for business and innovation strategy development. He has proven ability to build long-term relations and develop win-win business opportunities between industry and research organisations. He has been innovation consultant for a big pharmaceutical company and has been project manager of four H2020 projects (DRIVE, WATERSPOUTT, MADIA, EMSO-LINK).
Administrative and Fundraising Manager. Degree in Political Sciences, she is currently executive director at British School of English, reporting to the general director, in charge of administrative management and coordination in teaching activities and the educational activities. She also cares for promotion and fundraising activities. Previously she worked as experienced Office Manager and project assistant.
CTO, Head of development sector. Computer engineer, Information technology consultant for many Italian and International companies, software/multimedia developer from the 1997. Teacher of programming (fundamentals and advanced) courses for desktop and mobile platforms for Istituto Quasar – Rome. Author of tens of articles for magazine io Programmo – ed Master on mobile development, Augmented Reality integration, Kinect and WiiMote apps development, sperimental technologies. Addobe Flash/Flex/Unity3D game developer. Adobe ACE – Adobe Flex and AIR certified developer, EUCIP Core certified, Java 1.6 Sun Certified Programmer.