Elisa Filippi

Summary

Born in the Trentino-Alto Adige-South Tyrol region, I grew up with Europe in my heart. I have been working for more than 14 years (4 of them in Brussels) in the design and management of European projects involving Local Authorities, especially in the field of urban innovation, science education and sustainability. 

EU Projects & Urban Innovation - I have carried out, for many organisations and in particular for ANCI (National Association of Italian Municipalities), the design and management of several EU projects focused on resilience, sustainability and innovation, financed by European programmes such as Life plus, Horizon 2020, Interreg, Urban Innovative Actions. In this context, I have gained in-depth knowledge on several topics such as: Circular Economy; Climate Change and Adaptation; Digital Transition, Education, Innovative Procurement and strategic funding; I have followed Italian cities in the design of "Smart City" plans and activities as a member of the National Smart Cities Observatory, a topic on which I have co-authored several publications. In the past, I've contributed for many years as an external expert on dissemination and capitalisation to the activities of the National URBACT Point in Italy, as well as to the implementation of the Italian NPTI Transfer Network. Since 2020, I'm co-founder and Vice President of Euronike: I have coordinated the proposal design of many successful EU projects focused on the application of geospatial technologies, sustainability and education, such as Erasmus + GIS4Schools and Erasmus + EUthmappers, for which I'm the lead project manager and coordinator of the monitoring and evaluation activities.

Training, Capacity Building & Problem Solving - Complementing the management activities, I have worked as a trainer for cities and local authorities for many public and private organisations (such as IFEL, Venice International University,) and in international contexts. I have coordinated the training and capacity building of the project: Mediaree NextGeneration Siena funded by NOP Governance. In order to facilitate multi-stakeholder networks and to support local authorities in implementing change processes, motivation and problem-solving techniques are crucial. My approach draws on the constructivist-interactionist paradigm and the school of brief strategic therapy (G. Nardone). I have a Master's degree in Strategic Communication and Problem Solving from the Strategic Therapy Center - CTS, supervised by Prof. Giorgio Nardone and I attended the University Master in Psychology of Change at the Unilink Campus University in Rome.

Cities & Earth Observation for the Twin Transition - I strongly believe in the potential of cities as the main driver of the green and digital transition, and that it is fundamental to provide them with the right tools to support the planning and forecasting of their complex ecosystem. To this end, based on the awareness of the importance of the application of geospatial technologies for the achievement of the main public policy objectives (SDGs, EU Green Deal, etc.), I'm also deepening the topic by carrying out a research project focused on the study of the organisational models of public administration to promote the adoption of EO technologies in the framework of the National PHD on Earth Observation at the University La Sapienza in Rome.