Francesca Bria

Francesca Bria
Francesca Bria in 2019
Nationality	Italian
Alma mater	Imperial College London[1]
Website	https://www.francescabria.com

Francesca Bria is the President of the Italian National Innovation Fund. She is an Italian information technologist who lectures at various universities and is a consultant to the United Nations and the European Commission.

Bria is Honorary Professor in the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL in London. She is a senior adviser and Ambassador to the United Nation (UN-Habitat) on digital cities and digital rights. She is the former Chief Digital Technology and Innovation Officer for the City of Barcelona and founder of the Decode Project, an EU-wide effort to reclaim citizen's data sovereignty .^[2] She is an Honorary Professor on Technology and Innovation Policy at University College London (UCL), where she teaches about digital sovereignty and people-centered smart cities.^[3]

Biography[]

Bria was raised in the Monti district of Rome and graduated with a Bsc. in social sciences from Sapienza university. She then moved to London and gained an MSc in E-business and Innovation from the University College of London. Bria joined Nesta, a UK based innovation centre, where she was to remain for 8 years, and was promoted to senior project lead. While still at Nesta, Bria also lectured at various universities, along with consulting and facilitating various projecs in the UK and Europe, with clients ranging from grassroots NGOs to national governments.^{[4] [5]}

She was EU Coordinator of the D-CENT project (Decentralised Citizens ENgagement Technologies). This involved building digital tools to help citizens and grassroots group work with governments, and included elements of deliberative democracy, direct democracy and participatory budgeting. She was also principal investigator of the DSI project on digital social innovation in Europe.^{[4] [5]}

Bria is a member of the Internet of Things Council and an advisor for the European Commission on Future Internet and Smart Cities policy.^[6] She is also a member of the EC Expert Group on Open Innovation (OISPG)^[7] and a member of the European Research Cluster on the Internet of Things (IERC).^[8]

Bria advised the City of Rome and the Region of Lazio on innovation policy, open technology, and open cities. She has been teaching in several universities in the UK and Italy and she has advised Governments, public and private organizations on technology and innovation policy, and its socio-economic and environmental impact. She is also active in various organizations advocating for open access, digital rights, and decentralized, privacy-aware technologies.^[9]

Bria's work with D-CENT brought her to the attention of Ada Colau, who in 2016 invited her to become the CTO of Barcelona. Bria moved from London to the Spanish city, where she was remained until 2020. In January 2020 she was appointed president of Italy's newly created national innovation fund, a role she performs in parallel with lecturing and consulting on digital and innovation to the United nations and European Commission. ^{[5] [10][11]}

Awards[]

In 2018, Bria was named in Europe's Top 50 Women In Tech, 50 women from across Europe who are putting technology at the heart of their businesses assembled by Forbes..^[12] She is also featured in the World's top 20 most influential people in digital government by Apolitical, and in the Italian Magazine Repubblica "D", amongst the 100 Women Changing the World.^[11]

References[]

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