Valentina Pinna

Responsible for Research Innovation of the Lombardy Region, Chair of Vanguard Initiative

Valentina is the responsible for Research Innovation of the Lombardy Region (delegation to the EU). In this framework, she was involved in the launch of the Vanguard Initiative and she currently is the Chair of the network. More than 30 regions, under the umbrella of an ASBL,  share the political commitment of the Milan Declaration and join forces to build EU global competitive value chains, accelerate market uptake and delivering industrial innovation Investments in the framework of their Smart Specialization Strategies. Valentina is the interface between the regional administration, the RDAs and triple helix Clusters, key players in the Vanguard Pilots, in the Industrial Modernisation platform and relevant ETPs/ cPPPs. In the past Valentina worked for Finlombarda, the Regional Development Agency responsible for the implementation of the Regional Development Program, some ESIF measures and innovative financial instruments (EIB and EIF). In this framework, Valentina was involved in Enterprise Europe Network (business and innovation services), implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategy, Cluster policy and Open Innovation.

Before taking up this responsibility, she worked for the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, where she was in charge of the regional dimension of innovation. She was involved in the launch, monitoring and implementation of Innovation Union and, in particular, of European Innovation Partnerships.  She also worked on Innovative Public Procurement (PPIs and PCPs), joint programming (JPIs, Eurostars Joint Programs – Art 185) and research for SMEs measures (collaborative and cooperative research).

Before joining the EC, Valentina was Director of Unioncamere Lombardia (Union of 12 Chambers of Commerce, representing 1 million companies) where she got an extensive experience in working in partnership with Industry, SMEs (start-ups and scale up), Clusters and Universities.  Supporting Research, Innovation, entrepreneurship and Internationalization of companies was at the core of her role. From 2004 to 2010 she was also member of the Board of ERRIN (European Regions Research and Innovation Network) and involved in the strategic management of the network. The network was instrumental to the business support services provided to regional actors via the Euro Info Center/Innovation Relay Center (EEN) and the Research Framework Program regional contact point.

 

 

Valentina Pinna