Prof. Dr. Francesca Bria
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Francesca Bria is a leading innovation economist working at the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and society. She is Honorary Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) at University College London, founded by Mariana Mazzucato, and a Senior Fellow at Stiftung Mercator in Berlin, where she leads the EuroStack Initiative on Europe’s digital sovereignty (www.euro-stack.info).
Francesca serves as an advisor to the European Commission and is Chair of the New European Bauhaus Facility, launched by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to accelerate the EU Green Deal by bridging science, technology, architecture, the arts, and ecology. She is a member of the Spanish International Council on Artificial Intelligence, established by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and serves on the Committee of External Scientific Review of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
Previously, she was President of the Italian National Innovation Fund (CDP Venture Capital) and a board member of Italy’s public broadcaster RAI. From 2015 to 2019, she served as Chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer of the City of Barcelona, where she led the internationally acclaimed Barcelona Smart City Agenda and launched pioneering digital democracy and data sovereignty projects. She co-founded the UN Cities Coalition for Digital Rightsand was the founding director of DECODE, the EU’s flagship project on data commons and digital rights.
Francesca has taught at leading universities in the UK and Italy, and has advised governments, the United Nations, and a range of public and private institutions on digital innovation strategies and their socio-economic, environmental, and geopolitical implications.
She has received numerous international recognitions: Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes, Culture Person of the Year 2020 by F.A.Z., and one of the Top 20 Most Influential People in Digital Government by Apolitical. Politico Europe named her one of the 28 power players behind Europe’s tech revolution.
For further information, www.francescabria.com.
