Luca Leonardi

He has been working for more than ten years in EU projects design, management and evaluation, financial reporting and administration), with specific expertise in the set-up and coordination of training and master courses at the university level. He’s been employed in the R&D division of the University of Palermo as a reference person for technical assistance to FP7, Horizon 2020 and Structural Funds funded projects. He built a strong expertise in research management in the university’s environment. He has been co-founder and Director of the Novara branch of IUSEFOR, a university spin-off dedicated to executive education. At ARCA he is territorial Innovation manager and responsible for the EU project department. He is the EIT Health RIS Hub coordinator and EEN senior advisor for EU projects.

He is the founder and manager of ARCA Textile Lab where, since 2015, started to test the interaction between artists, designers and artisans and technology in order to investigate the role of art and creativity in triggering innovation processes (the so-called STEAM and STREAM approaches). Moreover, this activity develops a general model for a creative hub that includes a map of the types of creative enterprises represented and their disciplinary interactions, the overall governance structure, the roles of different external stakeholders, the management of shared resources, and the innovative concepts and service models with which the hub interacts with local businesses.