Giancarlo La Pietra

Giancarlo La Pietra has worked for more than 25 years at the University of Milano-Bicocca, where research, education and innovation meet. He was Research Manager at the School of Medicine from 2001 to 2014, has been Research and Innovation Manager since 2014, working on research exploitation, technology transfer, fundraising and university–business dialogue, and has been Education Manager since 2018. He knows European projects from the inside: he has experience in European project management and financial coordination, and he has trained public employees in EU funding and research. He holds an MBA from the University of Milano-Bicocca.

He is the creator of CreActionality™, a method that brings together creativity, rational analysis and action through design thinking, and the framework behind his course at EMA. Its starting point is that a good project begins with a challenge worth solving, not with a funding call. He also knows how proposals are judged: since 2020 he has evaluated innovation project proposals for EIT Health InnoStars, he reviewed projects for EIT Digital in 2025, and since 2023 he has been an expert and startup reviewer in the European Innovation Council's Tech to Market programme. He has taught design thinking in master's and advanced courses in Milan, trained innovators for EIT Food, and is a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator. He works in Italian and English.