Francesca Bria is an Italian information technologist and advisor on digital strategy, technology and information policy. She is the President of the Italian National Innovation Fund, and 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 on digital cities and digital rights. She is the former Chief Digital Technology and Innovation Officer for the City of Barcelona and she is the founder of the Decode Project, an EU-wide effort to reclaim data sovereignty of citizens. She is an Honorary Professor on Technology and Innovation Policy at University College London, where she teaches about digital sovereignty and people-centered smart cities.
Biography
Bria has a background in social science and innovation economics and an MSc in E-business and Innovation from the University College of London, Birkbeck. She was a Senior Project Lead in the Nesta Innovation Lab. She was EU Coordinator of the D-CENT project on direct democracy and social digital currencies and principal investigator of the DSI project on digital social innovation in Europe. Bria is a member of the Internet of Things Council and an advisor for the European Commission on Future Internet and Smart Cities policy. She is also a member of the EC Expert Group on Open Innovation and a member of the European Research Cluster on the Internet of Things. Bria has been advising 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.
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.. 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.
