Francesco is an innovation manager with 20 years of experience spent as a researcher in materials science, as a Corporate R&D Manager within the field of technologies for renewable energy production and storage, and as an intermediary of knowledge trying to exploit the research results within the field of energy and environment. As R&D Corporate manager, he also cofounded and directed several start-ups and joint-labs managing public-private partnerships.Since October 2020 he works at the European Commission as Programme Manager on Advanced Materials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability within the European Innovation Council (ECI-EISMEA). Coauthor of 35 publications and 5 patents and Temporary Professor at the University of Ferrara.