Elisa Filippi

Born in Trentino, in the Italian Alps, I have spent more than 16 years working with European cities, including four in Brussels. 

My work links European policy, applied research and local practice, with a recurring interest: how people and organisations turn new ideas into changes that last. More than ten years of training and facilitation, together with a qualification as a trainer in strategic communication and problem solving, shape how I work with groups and design learning processes.
 

• URBACT and European cooperation. As Lead Expert of RECUP (REinventing Culture in Urban Places), I guided six European partners in using culture and creativity to strengthen community ties and address social isolation. I supported participatory planning, peer learning and the development of investment plans, aligning local ambitions with governance, funding and implementation. This builds on longstanding work with ANCI, its National URBACT Point and Italian municipalities on European programmes and urban innovation.
• European Urban Initiative and urban learning. As a European Urban Initiative Innovative Actions Expert, I advise ALLOCATE in A Coruña on green and responsible AI for municipal services; SPACE4Talents in Stalowa Wola on STEAM, skills and talent development linked to the space economy; and GRID in Kallithea and Moschato-Tavros on urban heat adaptation, bringing together data, urban design and citizen participation. My role combines strategic advice and critical review, but also peer exchange and practical guidance on implementation and long-term sustainability. Through articles for Portico, the EUI’s knowledge platform, I turn these experiences into lessons other cities can use.
• AI, governance and organisational change. For IFEL’s AI-PACT, I served as scientific advisor and capacity-building coordinator, translating research involving 664 public employees into training and assessment tools and contributing to an organizational AI maturity model. Across research, training and advisory work, I explore the skills, leadership and organisational choices that help administrations move from individual experimentation to responsible AI adoption.
• STEAM, education and local challenges. As co-founder and EU Projects Lead of Euronike, I designed and coordinated the Erasmus+ projects GIS4Schools and EUthMappers, developing geospatial learning, collaborative mapping and teacher training. These projects bring science and digital skills to bear on climate and community challenges, enabling students and educators to investigate their own territories.
• Earth Observation and research. I hold a PhD with honours in Earth Observation from Sapienza University of Rome and am a validated external expert for EUSPA, the EU Agency for the Space Programme. My research examines the adoption of satellite data by local and regional authorities, with publications in Urban Science, Sustainability and L’industria Il Mulino. It brings an organisational and policy perspective to how space technologies can support territorial planning and public decisions.

A small thing about me: outside work, I play the piano (a little) and love exploring the language of colour. RECUP reminded me how art and creativity bring people together, and I am grateful to the cities I worked with for showing me how URBACT can change places and people, myself included.