Francesco Molinari is an international researcher and policy advisor with a 30-year working experience in R&D and innovation projects and programmes at the EU, national and regional levels — notably on such topics as Digital Government, Living Labs, Smart Cities, Culture and Creativity, Artificial Intelligence. Over this period, he has successfully advised several EU (and non-EU) national and regional governments in the design, implementation and evaluation of their R&D and innovation policies and programmes, notably including Smart Specialisation Strategies and Innovative Public Procurement initiatives. Francesco's background is in public management — both on the theoretical and the practical side, including serving for 5 years as director of a mid-sized municipality and for 7 years as CFO of a local business development agency.
Full Curriculum Vitae
The complete Europass CV is available in three languages. Download the PDF or view the interactive web version.
Key Topics & Speaking Areas
Digital Government & AI for Public Services
Governance frameworks, ethics and practical implementation pathways for AI in the public sector. Advisory, auditing and standards alignment.
Winning EU Funding
End-to-end support from concept to grant — proposal design, consortium building, submission strategy and post-award management for Horizon Europe and Digital Europe.
Innovative Public Procurement
PCP/PPI design and tender management. Enabling public buyers to become drivers of innovation. Standards, ethics and stakeholder engagement.
Innovation Policy & Smart Specialisation
Design, implementation and evaluation of regional innovation strategies. Smart Specialisation, territorial development and living lab methodologies.
Culture, Creativity & AI
Exploring the intersection of AI and the cultural-creative industries. Opportunities, risks and strategies for cultural organisations.
Living Labs & Stakeholder Engagement
Co-creation methods, facilitation techniques and multi-stakeholder engagement for local and regional innovation ecosystems.
Italian 
English 
Spanish