Francesco Molinari is an international researcher and policy advisor with a 25-years’ working experience in R&D and innovation projects and programmes at EU, national and regional levels – notably on such topics as Electronic Participation, Digital Government, Living Labs, Smart Cities, Culture and Creativity, etc. – involving more than 50 partnerships located in almost all European countries. Over the past 15 years he has also successfully advised a good number of 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.