KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Gianluca Galletto
Urban Innovation Expert & former Chairs Office at NYC Housings Authority

Gianluca Galletto
Urban Innovation Expert & former Chairs Office at NYC Housings AuthorityGianluca is a senior executive and international public speaker with 28 years’ experience in the public and private sectors. He is currently Managing Director for Tech & Innovation Partnerships in the Chair's Office of the New York City Housing Authority, the largest public housing system in the US and the largest landlord in NYC with 400K tenants. He is a partner of Global Futures Group (GFG), which guides public and private clients in creating smart & sustainable urban communities, building innovation ecosystems, and cross-border business development. GFG is a co-founder of SCNY Urban Tech Summit at Cornell-Tech, New York. Gianluca has advised organizations at the intersection of economic development, technology and business development, working with businesses entering US markets, local and national governments, and private entities, such as Lendlease on the Milan Innovation District, Amundi, The European House -Ambrosetti, New York City’s Mayor’s Office, the World Bank, the Partnership for NYC, and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. He is a former executive of the government of New York City where he led International Trade and Investment as Director of International at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which he joined in 2014. His mandate was to grow the innovation ecosystem by increasing FDI in tech, linking them to the SDGs. During his tenure, he launched programs to lure tech businesses, built a global network of relationships with investors, business and government leaders - engaging with more than 500 companies - and launched IN2.NYC, the first citywide program in the US to provide uncapped H1B visas to foreign founders. Gianluca has 20 years of prior experience in the private sector, mostly in finance as a portfolio manager, investor, startup mentor, entrepreneur and business development leader. From 1998 to 2012, he worked at Muzinich & Co., a world-class credit asset manager, where he led international business development, being responsible for new assets under management in excess of $1.7B. Prior to moving to the U. S. in 1996, he spent four years in Brussels, Belgium, where he worked as a consultant for the EU Commission. Over his entire life, Gianluca has been politically active, both in the US and in Europe, volunteering with fundraising efforts for Democratic campaigns, advising former Italian prime and finance ministers, mayors and liaising between European and US top government officials. He is passionate about sustainability and is a regular speaker at major international urban innovation conferences and a contributor to media such as Crain's, RaiNews 24, CNBC, la Repubblica. He also is an investor and mentor of startups. He speaks English, Italian, French and Spanish and holds an MA in International and Development Economics from Yale University and a BA+MA in Economics, Business and Law from Bocconi University in Milan. Gianluca is a former Fulbright scholar and a dual US/Italian citizen residing in New York City.
Jeff Cherry
CEO & Founder, Conscious Venture Lab & Managing Partner Conscious Venture Partners

Jeff Cherry
CEO & Founder, Conscious Venture Lab & Managing Partner Conscious Venture PartnersJeff Cherry is a seasoned CEO, entrepreneur, corporate executive, startup advisor, venture and wall street investor, speaker and writer with a track record of strategic execution and innovation. Over the last 35 years he has built award winning companies in engineering, design, strategic consulting and investment management. He has been a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 executives, government agencies and startups, with a focus on helping teams understand customers and build dynamic, high-performing organizational cultures. Jeff has a unique combination of C-Suite experience and a startup entrepreneur's DNA. In his capacity as general partner of the Conscious Venture Fund he has advised, invested in and helped launch more than 100 early-stage venture backed companies. He has worked with corporate venture programs and has acted as an advisor to a Vatican based startup studio. He is regarded as a leading authority on the ideas of organizational culture and design, stakeholder management and innovation. He has written articles on organizational culture and stakeholder management for Conscious Company Magazine and the Huffington Post and has been profiled on Forbes.com as well as in the Baltimore Sun. He has been honored as one of the top 10 people in technology in Baltimore by the Baltimore Business Journal. In 2018 he was awarded the inaugural Laudato Si Challenge Impact award at the Vatican for entrepreneurs who are leading the charge to change the relationship between business and society. More recently, the tech journal Technical.ly named Jeff their 2020 Baltimore Impact Leader of the Year. The Conscious Venture Lab accelerator which he founded in 2013 was named one of the 10 greatest social impact programs in the world in 2019.
Carlos Moreno
Scientific Director of the ETI Chair - Entrepreneurship – Territory – Innovation (IAE Paris-Sorbonne University)

Carlos Moreno
Scientific Director of the ETI Chair - Entrepreneurship – Territory – Innovation (IAE Paris-Sorbonne University)University Professor and researcher, Carlos Moreno earned international recognition thanks to his major contribution and pioneer concepts, bringing an innovative perspective on urban issues (Human Smart City, 15mn City, Territory of 30mn). In June 2022, he launched the Global Observatory of proximities with UN-Habitat, C40 Cities, UCLG and other partners at the World Urban Forum #WUF11. Prizes Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (France, 2010) Foresight Medal by the French Academy of Architecture (France, 2019) Obel Award by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation (Denmark, 2021) Leadership Award, Smart City Expo World Congress (Spain, 2021) European Congress of Local Governments Prize (Poland, 2022) World Pioneer Awards for Building Better Lives », FIABCI (Paris, 2022) International Mobility Award, Empresas por la movilidad sostenible (Madrid, 2022)
HIGH LEVEL SPEAKERS
Tuija Hirvikoski
Emerita president of ENoLL holding a PhD in Industrial Management (Innovation and Innovation Ecosystem relationship)

Tuija Hirvikoski
Emerita president of ENoLL holding a PhD in Industrial Management (Innovation and Innovation Ecosystem relationship)Dr. Tuija Hirvikovski, emerita president of ENoLL has received a Ph.D. in Industrial Management (Innovation and Innovation Ecosystem relationship). Hirvikoski has held various managerial positions at different Finnish higher education institutions and governmental institutions focusing on sustainable regional and societal development such as being a long-term Vice-President of Laurea. She has contributed to the development of several EU funded RDI projects particularly in the field of holistic and citizen-driven service innovation, eHealth and Wellbeing, Smart Citizens and Entrepreneurship. Hirvikoski represents Laurea in national and international organizations such as Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Coordinating Committee, ENoLL, Committee of the Regions, EC OSPP, Sendai-Finland Wellbeing Centre and an invited expert on the EC European University Vision 2030 group. In 2016, she was rewarded with the international Innovation Luminary Award.
Evdokimos Konstantinidis
President, European Network of Living Labs, Thess-AHALL Researcher,

Evdokimos Konstantinidis
President, European Network of Living Labs, Thess-AHALL Researcher,Dr Evdokimos Konstantinidis is the leader of the Assistive Technologies and Silver Science Research Group in the Lab of Medical Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He received the Diploma in electronic engineering from the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, in 2004, the M.Sc. degree in medical informatics in 2008 from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and the Ph.D. degree in the Laboratory of Medical Physics of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 2015. His research interests lie predominately in the area of medical informatics, particularly within assistive technologies (silverscience, silvergaming, mobile health)
Martina Desole
Director ENoLL

Martina Desole
Director ENoLLMartina Desole is the Director of ENoLL, the European Network of Living Labs, based in Brussels, promoting globally the Living Lab concept and methodology and the Network of our certified Members. She has a degree in International Law and a Postgraduate in European Policies. Martina is an expert in European policies and programs for research and innovation, has been officially appointed by the Ministry of Research, Education and University as the National Contact Point of the European Commission in Italy, for Industrial Technologies (Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology) since 2002. She has been working in the field of science diplomacy and promotion of research and innovation, helping researchers and entrepreneurs to find a way to be funded by Europe for their ideas, and Europe to implement International Cooperation policies in science and innovation with other countries.
Fernando Vilariño
Associate Director at the Computer Vision Center and Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science UAB

Fernando Vilariño
Associate Director at the Computer Vision Center and Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science UABI give lectures about Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Multimedia Systems. My research has been linked to different areas Artificial Intelligence, particularly in Computer Vision, with a special attention to Medical Imaging, fieldwork in which I have developed different projects together with paramount hospitals and companies. My work has been published in the main Journals and Conferences of the area and I have also contributed to a number of patents in the field. During the last years, I have participated in the design of different initiatives, both at local and international level, with the aim of developing novel paradigms of digital social innovation. I have led the implementation of a model of Living Lab that transforms Libraries into actual innovation arenas, by exploring how technology transforms the cultural experience of people. Through this initiative I have had the chance to participate in different events and invited talks related to the use of ICT in the context of Culture. My main expertise is centered around: - Models of Governance of Living Labs and 4-helix instruments. - Innovation in Libraries, Museums and the cultural field in general. - Artificial Intelligence and ICT tools. I have been awarded with the Spanish Government Ramon y Cajal Grant (2010), Google Academy Award for my research (2014), and the Barcelona Mobile Week Award for the @BrossaInedit project (2017). I coordinate the ENoLL Action-oriented Task Force on Social Impact of AI and Living Labs as Regulatory Learning Tools.
Giancarlo Caratti
Chief Executive Officer Crossmedia Europe and Senior Advisor at the EC

Giancarlo Caratti
Chief Executive Officer Crossmedia Europe and Senior Advisor at the ECGiancarlo Caratti di Lanzacco has been working at the European Commission (EC) during most of his professional career until September 2021, when he kept a senior advisory role at the EC and joined Crossmedia Europe, a new company promoting dissemination of art and culture via digital and web technologies, which builds on CT Crossmedia’s success worldwide in the production of digital immersive exhibition. His last assignment at the EC was Head for Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Unit, which manages the EC’s intellectual properties and promotes innovation via technology transfer. This Unit was integrated in JRC’s “Competence” Directorate, where both the European Bauhaus and foresight programme were initiated. In 2013 Mr Caratti was appointed as Deputy Commissioner General for the EU participation in the World Expo Milano 2015 and Head of the relevant EU task force. In his previous assignments, Mr Caratti's educational background is on mechanical engineering with specialisation on energy systems. Before joining the Commission, he worked as researcher and teaching assistant at the Faculties of Engineering of Florence and Pisa and spent one year as visiting scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology to carry out research on energy modelling. He also worked for two years at Techint, Italy's largest private engineering company based in Milan. Mr Caratti has over 60 publications in international conferences, journals, etc. and is editor of various technical books.
TOPIC DEBATE SPEAKERS & WORKSHOP FACILITATORS
Mathias Mitteregger
Policy Advisor, AustriaTech

Mathias Mitteregger
Policy Advisor, AustriaTechMathias Mitteregger holds a Ph.D. in architectural theory. He has published and taught on how innovations change perception, design and ultimately life in cities. He worked in various academic positions and recently joined AustriaTech as a policy advisor, where he works on various projects and as part of a growing community to make climate neutral cities a reality.
Josep Maria Salanova Grau
Researcher, CERTH/HIT

Josep Maria Salanova Grau
Researcher, CERTH/HITJosep Maria Salanova Grau is a researcher at CERTH/HIT and holds a Civil engineering diploma and PhD in transport modelling from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona and a MSc in civil and transportation engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He is leading the “Data analysis and modelling” laboratory. His scientific interests concern research and developments in transport and mostly in algorithm and model development, mobility, intermodal transport and logistics as well as Data Science and Big Data at the transport domain.
María Alonso Raposo
Future Mobility Solutions Living Lab, Joint Research Centre

María Alonso Raposo
Future Mobility Solutions Living Lab, Joint Research CentreMaría Alonso Raposo joined the Sustainable Transport Unit at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) Ispra, Italy, in 2016 as a technology and policy analyst on autonomous road transport. The main focus of her work is the analysis of the social and economic implications of a Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility, in support of EU policy-making in this area. At present, she is responsible for the scientific activities of the JRC Future Mobility Solutions Living Lab engaging citizens in the co-creation of future mobility.
Maria Konstantinidou
CERTH, Greece Transformer EU Project: Building superlabs

Maria Konstantinidou
CERTH, Greece Transformer EU Project: Building superlabsMaria Konstantinidou is an urban planner with MSc degrees in Transport management and in Environmental planning. In 2019 she graduated from the Hellenic Open University from an MBA program. She is a research associate of the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT) of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) since 2018, participating in various national and European projects. Her research interests include Living Lab approach as well as users’ engagement strategies in mobility.
Biagio Ciuffo
Research Group Lead, Join Research Centre

Biagio Ciuffo
Research Group Lead, Join Research CentreBiagio Ciuffo works at the European Commission Joint Research Centre where he leads the research group on Smart Mobility and the Living Lab for Future Mobility Solutions currently being setup in the Ispra site of the JRC. Biagio Ciuffo has published more than 100 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings in transportation engineering. For his research activities on traffic simulation he was awarded with the 2012 Greenshields Prize and with the 2020 and 2013 Prize of the SimSub Committee all from the Transportation Research Board of the US National Academy of Science.
Dimosthenis Sarigiannis
Professor, Director (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, HERACLES Research Center, University School for Advanced Study)

Dimosthenis Sarigiannis
Professor, Director (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, HERACLES Research Center, University School for Advanced Study)
Dimosthenis Sarigiannis is Professor of Environmental Engineering and Director of the Environmental Engineering Laboratory and the General Chemical Technology Laboratory of the Department of Chemical Engineering and of the Research Group on the Exposome and Health at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. He is also Associate Professor of Environmental Health Engineering at the Institute for Advanced Study (IUSS) in Pavia, Italy, Director of the Research Center on Complex Risk and Data Analysis and member of the coordination team of the nation-wide PhD program on Sustainable Development and Climate at the Institute for Advanced Study (IUSS) of Pavia in Italy and visiting Professor at the University of Paris. He is President of the Mediterranean Scientific Association for Environmental Protection, Vice-President of the Hellenic Society of Toxicology, member of the Expert Committee on Air Pollution of the Greek Ministry of Health and advisor to the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health. In 2015 he received the Bo Holmstedt award from EUROTOX for his contributions to the safety of pharmaceuticals and chemicals. His research focuses on the unraveling of the human exposome to improve the health risk assessment and to evaluate the effects of climate change and of climate change adaptation and mitigation policies. He is the author or co-author of over 160 scientific papers published in the peer-reviewed literature and 26 chapters in international books and monographs and has led or contributed to 50 international research projects in the above areas.
Caroline Hood
Lecturer in Sociology, Robert Gordon University

Caroline Hood
Lecturer in Sociology, Robert Gordon University
Caroline is a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Applied Social Studies at Robert Gordon University. Her research interests focus on the organizational, practical, and social impediments of the successful implementation of cycling-specific policies and the construction of vulnerable road users within transport policy. She is also interested in wider themes within transportation, humans and the environment, and the stigma experienced by vulnerable groups. Her previous research includes the H2020 CIVITAS PORTIS project that focused on sustainable mobility and the creation of healthy and accessible city-port environments and the resolution of conflicts between freight, passenger, and non-motorised transport. Caroline is experienced in the application of qualitative research design to social and social policy based research.
Vincenzo Antonetti
Head of Network Development of Innovation, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center

Vincenzo Antonetti
Head of Network Development of Innovation, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation CenterVincenzo Antonetti graduated with honor in Economics from the University of Turin, he also has a master's degree in Banking & Finance at SDA Luigi Bocconi. With a strong banking experience, Vincenzo joined the Innovation Center of Intesa Sanpaolo in 2014. Previously Vincenzo has been involved in different fields spanning from Sales Department (Branch Manager) to pricing analysis (Senior Pricing Analyst) for the Italian Market, from Strategic Marketing Department to Customer Satisfaction and Market Research Division. With Responsibility of the Network Development of Innovation – at the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, he has the aim to support innovative projects of the Bank, creating new business opportunities for both national and international Company Customers, scouting new technologies and generating global collaborations in order to facilitate match-making and investment opportunities for corporates and startups.
Elena Deambrogio
Head of Innovation of CTE NEXT, the House of Emerging Technologies of Turin

Elena Deambrogio
Head of Innovation of CTE NEXT, the House of Emerging Technologies of TurinElena Deambrogio, with a background of studying and working in the field of EU Affairs in Brussels, Elena has been working for 20 years at the City of Turin, EU Funds and Innovation Department, in the field of sustainable urban development. Elena is one of the founders of Torino City Lab, Turin's first city living lab, now in its 4th year of operational activity, intended as a place where technology is measured against real needs to offer new solutions to improve the quality of life. She recently curated and submitted the application to MISE for the realization of the House of Emerging Technologies in Turin, winning the call. Today, she is the Head of Innovation of CTE NEXT, the House of Emerging Technologies of Turin, a spin-off of Torino City Lab, which aims to create a diffuse technology transfer center on emerging technologies enabled by 5G capable of promoting business development, skills growth and industrial and urban innovation in strategic sectors for Turin.
Nicola Farronato
CIO, Immodrone

Nicola Farronato
CIO, ImmodroneNicola Farronato is both a manager and entrepreneur who likes to build new innovative projects and ventures. He has extensive experience as an international business developer who has worked in several European cities such as Venice, London, Dublin, Paris, Turin. He practises and experiences entrepreneurship. He develops creative projects in the digital world and has a natural sense of transforming a mere idea into a fruitful business. Nicola founded B-sm@rk in Ireland, a high potential tech start-up; Back2Africa in Italy, a social entrepreneurship venture raising funds for Togo & Benin kids; and VCNY (Venice Chinese New Year) in Italy, a destination marketing project focusing on Chinese millennial travellers. He was Head of the innovation team for the City of Turin and acted as innovation manager for Torino City Lab. He is currently CIO at Immodrone, Italy's No.1 company for photo/video services and technical inspections with drones, and he is Entrepreneur In Residence at Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Nicola just enrolled as a Ph.D. student at the University of Turin with a focus on innovation for the circular economy.
Alessandro Piperno
Program Director, CTE Roma

Alessandro Piperno
Program Director, CTE RomaAlessandro Piperno, is the Program Director of the CTE Roma. He is responsable for the coordination and management of all activities of the project, one of the first innovation spaces launched by Roma Capitale. He is also finalising his PhD in Management, in which he has carried out his research on entreprenurial actvities and their link with the city, managing the activities of an Horizon 2020 project. Alessandro is an expert on urban development and entrepreneurship, graduated at Bocconi university in Business Administration and with a Master in Urban Management and Development at Erasmus university. Before working for Roma Capitale, he has worked as a strategic consultant at Pwc developing Smart City projects in collaboration with the European Commision.
Colin Tarbert
President and CEO, Baltimore Development Corporation

Colin Tarbert
President and CEO, Baltimore Development CorporationColin Tarbert is the president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), which serves as the economic development agency for Baltimore City, located in Maryland, USA in the Mid-Atlantic area of the East Coast. It is responsible for growing the city by retaining and attracting businesses, expanding job opportunities for city residents, and increasing investment in city neighbourhoods. Prior to his BDC appointment, Tarbert served in various leadership roles for nearly a decade at the Mayor’s Office of Baltimore City during three administrations, including the roles of Deputy Chief of Strategic Alliances and Deputy Mayor for Economic and Neighbourhood Development. In addition, Tarbert is active on numerous civic and non-profit boards. In 2013, Tarbert was named as a 40 under 40 honoree by the Baltimore Business Journal. Previous to the role of president & CEO and his tenure in the Mayor’s Office, Tarbert was a senior economic development officer for BDC. Tarbert graduated with a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Maryland, where he subsequently earned his Master of Architecture degree.
Sven Schade
Scientific Project Leader at European Commission, Joint Research Centre

Sven Schade
Scientific Project Leader at European Commission, Joint Research CentreMy career focuses on multi-disciplinary interoperability, open innovation, and regulatory learning. The underlying interests include (i) research on public governance and citizen science, (ii) policy, especially digital transitions, Responsible Research and Innovation, and public sector reforms; and (iii) the uptake of emerging technologies, including virtual worlds, artificial intelligence and others. Since September 2013, I have been working as a scientific officer for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), where I was already employed for three years as a post-doc (2009-2012) and six months as an intern (2005). Before re-joining the JRC, I worked at the European Environment Agency (EEA) as project manager for the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS). In my early career, I spent ten years with the Institute for Geoinformatics (IfGI) of the University of Muenster - where I completed my diploma and PhD studies (in 2004 and 2009, respectively) and contributed to numerous national and European-level research projects in the area of geospatial information science. At IfGI, I was employed as a member of the Münster Semantic Interoperability Lab (MUSIL) and between 2006 and 2009 I also worked as technical consultant for Geospatial Partners s.r.l. Among other, I am council member of the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE), Advisory Board Member of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) and of the Geo-for-all initiative, co-organiser of several scientific symposia, and have authored and co-authored more than 100 publications in the fields of next-generation knowledge infrastructures, semantic interoperability, and citizen science.
Marina Manzoni
EU Policy Officer, European Commission

Marina Manzoni
EU Policy Officer, European CommissionMarina has a university degree in Economics and Humanities. She joined the European Commission in 1991 where she has been working as Innovation Officer for Digital Technologies and Applications in support to businesses, citizens and the public sector - in areas, such as, eBusiness, eInclusion and eGoverment. She moved to the Joint Research Center (JRC) in 2015, where she enriched her experience in managing research projects and developing innovation policies in areas, including Citizen Science and Artificial Intelligence applied to Public Services. She is currently working in the area of Digital Transformation and Governance of the Public Sector within the Digital Economy Unit.
Chiara Foglietta
City of Turin's Councillor for Ecological and Digital Transition

Chiara Foglietta
City of Turin's Councillor for Ecological and Digital TransitionChiara Foglietta is the City of Turin's Councillor for Ecological and Digital Transition, Innovation, Environment, Mobility and Transportation. At 28 she became a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, at 32 deputy group leader of the PD in the Red Room. She works in health care, and the last Covid years were really intense: she opened, at the IT infrastructure level, new departments, watched them fill to capacity, and then shut them down, with the relief of feeling that perhaps we were coming out of a nightmare. Her path in politics, as in associationism, is guided by a precise goal: to give a voice to those who don’t have one, to represent those who don’t have rights, so that society becomes, at least a little, more fair.
Daniela Patti
Architect and urban planner

Daniela Patti
Architect and urban plannerDaniela Patti is an Italian-British architect and urban planner. She has studied in Rome, London, Porto and holds a Ph.D. in urbanism from the Technical University of Vienna. Specialised in urban regeneration and environmental planning with a particular focus on metropolitan governance and collaborative planning, her recent research and projects’ interest has been on the governance of peri-urban landscape, the revitalisation of local food markets and new economic models for community-based urban She worked for the Rome Municipality in 2014-15, coordinating European projects such as the URBACT “Temporary Use as a Tool for Urban Regeneration”
Gianluca Salvatori
Secretary General of Fondazione Italia Sociale and Euricse

Gianluca Salvatori
Secretary General of Fondazione Italia Sociale and EuricseGianluca Salvatori has been at Euricse since 2009, first as CEO then as of 2015 as Secretary General. Secretary General of Fondazione Italia Sociale since 2018 and member of the European Commission Expert Group on Social Economy and Social Enterprises (GECES) as well as an observer participant of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy.
Filipe Almeida
President of the Mission Unit “Portugal Social Innovation”

Filipe Almeida
President of the Mission Unit “Portugal Social Innovation”Filipe Almeida is currently President of the Mission Unit “Portugal Social Innovation”, a public entity created to promote social innovation and develop the social investment market in Portugal. He is professor of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and researcher at the Center of Social Studies. He holds a PhD in Business Administration from EBAPE / FGV (Brazilian School of Public Administration and Business, Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Brazil) and a PhD in Business Management from the University of Coimbra. He also holds a Master's Degree in Business Sciences, having attended the MBA program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (USA).
Laura Orestano
CEO at SocialFare

Laura Orestano
CEO at SocialFareLaura Orestano, Laura Orestano (@lauraorestano) is CEO at SocialFare |Center for Social Innovation Italy (www.socialfare.org) and President of the first impact seed fund in Italy, SocialFare Seed. Laura has extensive experience in social entrepreneurship and social innovation ecosystems and has worked for large multinational corporations and institutions worldwide. She focuses her work on how to leverage social value so that it may generate economic value for communities and society as a whole. Laura is co-author of UN-ILO Paper “ Social Innovation and the Future of Work”, EU Commission Expert on Social Innovation, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 2016 was awarded with the WEF Prize “Iconic Trail Blazer Woman of the Decade”. She has been recently appointed ActionAid Italia Board Member..
Matteo Robiglio
Architect and professor at Politecnico di Torino

Matteo Robiglio
Architect and professor at Politecnico di TorinoMatteo Robiglio, Architect and professor at Politecnico di Torino, where he coordinates the Interdepartmental Research Center Future Urban Legacy Lab. His research and projects are focused on the theme of reuse of buildings and regeneration of parts of the city, also through the experimentation of innovative models of access to property and organization of spaces, in order to promote initiatives with high social impact.
Amalia Zepou
Senior visiting appointment at LSE Cities

Amalia Zepou
Senior visiting appointment at LSE CitiesAmalia Zepou served as vice mayor for civil society and innovation from 2014 to 2019 at the Municipality of Athens. In 2013, she created an award-winning civil society platform “synAthina” which later helped establish a sector for social innovation in the Athens administration. She is presently conducting a senior visiting appointment at LSE Cities with a Bloomberg Philanthropies fellowship.
Chiara Saraceno
Honorary fellow at the Collegio Carlo Alberto

Chiara Saraceno
Honorary fellow at the Collegio Carlo AlbertoChiara Saraceno, graduated in Philosophy, she was a lecturer in Sociology of the Family at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Turin until 2008. From October 2006 to June 2011, she was a research lecturer at the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung in Berlin. She is currently an honorary fellow at the Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, Italy.
Fabio Sgaragli
FGB innovation centers lead

Fabio Sgaragli
FGB innovation centers leadFabio Sgaragli leads the ten innovation centers run by FGB in Italy and their respective incubation and acceleration programs that, to date, have supported more than 400 innovative social and environmental impact startups. He has gained extensive experience in consulting and training through managing projects in 30 countries and 5 continents.
Viesturs Celmins
Urban Planner

Viesturs Celmins
Urban PlannerViesturs Celmins is an urban planner with more than 15 years of international experience in planning and development. Viesturs holds degrees from the New School and the University of Cambridge and is a frequent public speaker and panelist in the areas of planning, innovation and smart city development. Starting 2018, Viesturs manages VEFRESH innovation district and Living Lab in Riga, Latvia.
Jochem Cooiman
Innovation officer for the city of Rotterdam

Jochem Cooiman
Innovation officer for the city of RotterdamJochem Cooiman is innovation officer for the city of Rotterdam. Together with his fellow innovation officers he works on enhancing innovative capacities in Rotterdam, of both the municipality as well as of its city stakeholders. For their innovation Network Rotterdam (iNR) – currently 2.500 members large – the new I innovation centre VONK has been established. In this centre they investigate, experiment and learn how to deal with the various societal challenges and transformations.
Miguel Herrera Gutiérrez
Guenalguacil City Lab (SP)

Miguel Herrera Gutiérrez
Guenalguacil City Lab (SP)Miguel Angel Herrera Gutiérrez was born in November 1977. He grew up in a family of farmers, whose farm is located ten kilometers from the town of Genalguacil. As a teenager he had the great opportunity to visit England with neighbours. That trip and others that followed have given him a wide range of experiences, going from the rural to the big city. In 2011 he became mayor of Genalguacil. He had never imagined being involved in politics or public management. From that moment, Miguel Ángel applied all his business knowledge to change the trajectory of his municipality. He began, among many other things, by opening the Museum of Contemporary Art, which had been closed. This journey began from the works of local artists; the scope and artistic level of the exhibitions and the presence of major artists of the Spanish art scene have been gradually growing, until they have become an unequivocal benchmark for contemporary art in Andalusia. To give the Genalguacil Pueblo Museo project its own identity, other major changes were implemented: the professionalization of the Encuentros de Arte, the creation of Arte Vivo, the creation of Lumen, a festival around light and contemporary art that had its first edition in 2019, as well as the achievement of a wide and valuable cultural agenda throughout the year, which has led Genalguacil to enter the rankings of the Observatory of Culture in Spain in its 2018 edition, ahead of other institutions with million euro budgets, that receive hundreds of thousands of visitors or that have even been declared a World Heritage Site. Nowadays, Miguel Ángel combines the mayorship of Genalguacil with his business life.
Gabriella Racca
Full Professor of Administrative Law at the Department of Management at the University of Turin

Gabriella Racca
Full Professor of Administrative Law at the Department of Management at the University of TurinGabriella M. Racca is Full Professor of Administrative Law at the Department of Management of the University of Torino (Italy). She coordinates the IUS Publicum Network (class A ranking) and she is a member of many international networks. She is in the Board of Directors of the Italian Institute of Administrative Sciences (I.I.A.S.). She is the Director of the Master on Efficiency, Integrity and Innovation in Italian Public Contracts (Master SEIIC), mentioned by the EU Commission as an example of training in public procurement/anti-corruption issues. Since the first edition, she teaches in the diploma/master in “Public procurement regulation in the EU and its global context” (organized by Centre of European Law, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London). She is part of the Scientific Board of the Master in Public Procurement Management for sustainable development and Master en gouvernance et management des marchés publics en appui au développement durable (both organized by the ITC-ILO and University of Torino). She has been Head of Research Units of several EU projects PPI2Innovate, CirPro, Finch and Healthy Ageing and Public Procurement of Innovation and Member of the Advisory Board of the EURIPHI project. She collaborates with many Academic Colleagues of international Universities on different research topics as Administrative Law, Public liability, Integrity, Public Procurement and innovation, digital transition and aggregation models.
Benoit Cuvelier
Co-coordinator, Nantes City Lab City team

Benoit Cuvelier
Co-coordinator, Nantes City Lab City teamBenoit Cuvelier graduated from the École Supérieure de Commerce Et de Management - ESCEM, in 2002 he obtained a Post Graduation from CY Cergy Paris Université in Transport and Urban Mobility. He was Project Officer at the International Labor Organization, managing international projects on entrepreneurship, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and private sector development (1995-1999). He worked in Dexia Bank as training manager and in other private and public organisations in France and abroas. He joined Nantes Metropole in 2006 and hold several positions:; From 2016 to 2021, he was Nantes coordinator for the Horizon 2020 “smart city” project called mySMARTLife and also coordinated Nantes application to the European capital of Innovation in 2019 which was successful. He joined Nantes City Lab City team in 2021 as co-coordinator.
Toshio Sumi
Director of Startup Support Office, Economic Affairs Bureau, City of Nagoya

Toshio Sumi
Director of Startup Support Office, Economic Affairs Bureau, City of NagoyaToshio Sumi is Director of Startup Support Office, Economic Affairs Bureau, City of Nagoya. After joining the government office of Nagoya city, he worked on industrial development in the Economic Affairs Bureau after completing his duty at Nagoya City University. He engaged in the management of incubation facilities and university-industry collaboration office work. He got a new assignment to propel robot and AI-related projects such as verification tests for advanced technologies after organizing “Robo Cup 2017 Nagoya Japan”. In 2018, He presented the "Nagoya Innovation Strategy" to advance the establishment of "NAGOYA INNOVATOR'S GARAGE" and "NAGONO CAMPUS" as innovation hubs in cooperation with the Central Japan Economic Federation. He was assigned as the first director of the Startup Support Office to manage various startup programs and an Urban Testing program named “Hatch Technology Nagoya”.
Dario Malerba
Expert for the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers, Department for Digital Transformation - Product Owner of "Mobility as a Service for Italy" national initiative

Dario Malerba
Expert for the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers, Department for Digital Transformation - Product Owner of "Mobility as a Service for Italy" national initiativeThanks to the university path in International Economics and Management, concluded with a grade of 110 cum laude, the Master's in Business Administration (MBA) held at the Colleges des Ingenieurs (Turin, Paris, Monaco), Dario Malerba has developed in-depth knowledge in different fields of application of economic sciences, with particular focus on innovative business models, smart cities & smart mobility, economics of innovation and emerging technologies. Dario Malerba's professional background includes various work experiences in both the public and private sectors, culminating in his current position as an Expert for the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers, working in the Department for Digital Transformation, the technical organization that supports the work of the Minister for Innovation and Digital Transition, as Product Owner of a Recovery Plan investment: Mobility as a Service for Italy.
Eric Gaudillat
5G connectivity at DG CONNECT of the European Commission

Eric Gaudillat
5G connectivity at DG CONNECT of the European CommissionEric Gaudillat is in charge of investment policy in 5G connectivity at DG CONNECT of the European Commission. He coordinates the Connecting Europe Facility funding action on 5G for Smart Communities, launching a call for proposals planned October 2022 to February 2023. He has been working in electronic communications policy, research and innovation for ten years. Prior to the Commission, he was product manager at a software editor for trading desks of market banks. He holds an Ingénieur MSc from Telecoms Bretagne and a Business MSc from HEC Paris.
Laura Hetel
Policy Officer for Future Urban Systems at the European Commission

Laura Hetel
Policy Officer for Future Urban Systems at the European CommissionLaura Hetel is a Policy Officer for Future Urban Systems at the European Commission, DG Research & Innovation. She works on the implementation of Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission and on the New European Bauhaus. She is also responsible for international cooperation on urban challenges, including for the global Urban Transitions Mission of Mission Innovation. “
Valentino Piana
Senior Academic Associate at the University of Applied Science of Western Switzerland

Valentino Piana
Senior Academic Associate at the University of Applied Science of Western SwitzerlandValentino Piana is Senior Academic Associate at the University of Applied Science of Western Switzerland at the Institute of Sustainable Energy. IPCC reviewer, climate economist, he is the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Manager of the Lantern project – a major effort by Living Labs and applied researchers in 17 institutions to impact energy-related lifestyles. After graduating at Bocconi University (Milan - Italy) in 1994, he taught at the University of Economics in Cracow (Poland) such disciplines as Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. From 2000 to 2008 he was Senior consultant at a strategic consulting boutique firm in Rome (Italy). Since year 2000 he has been leading the Economics Web Institute, providing support to policymakers on a large number of issues. In February 2018 he joined the HES-SO Valais-Wallis.
Manuel Villa-Arrieta, PhD
Researcher at Funseam and the Transnet project

Manuel Villa-Arrieta, PhD
Researcher at Funseam and the Transnet projectManuel Villa-Arrieta is researcher at Funseam. Funseam is a private non-profit foundation, a forum for discussion and debate, analysis, scientific research, and advice in the field of energy and the environment. Manuel is industrial engineer, Master in renewable energies by the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and the Universitat Politécnica de Cataluña (UPC), and PhD in electrical engineering by the UPC. Manuel is also an entrepreneur and CEO of the startup Biyiud. During the Tr@nsnet project (2020-2023) Manuel led with Funseam the creation of a university Living Lab model to foster the creation of innovations in the framework of the ecological transition. The European project Transnet, financed with FEDER funds, was carried out by the consortium led by the French University Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), with the participation of Funseam, the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), the University of Lisbon (FCUL), the University of Beira Interior (UBI), the University of La Rochelle (URL), the CIRCE Foundation - Center for Energy Resources and Consumption (CIRCE) and the Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA).
RESEARCH SESSION CHAIR
Dimitri Schuurman
Manager Business & Domain Experts imec's Digital Transformation Department

Dimitri Schuurman
Manager Business & Domain Experts imec's Digital Transformation Department
Dimitri Schuurman leads the Business & Domain Expertise Center at imec's Digital Transformation Department focussing on the domains Smart Cities, Mobility & Public Health. He holds a PhD on Living Lab organizations from Ghent University & the Free University of Brussels in Belgium. Together with his imec colleagues, Dimitri developed a specific Innovation Management approach & framework (called Innovatrix) which is specifically designed for multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary innovation projects. He also leads a Special Interest Group on Living Labs in the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) and is active in the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) as a Living Labs specialist. His main interests and research topics are situated in the domains of open innovation, user innovation and innovation management.