Professor Piero Formica began his career as an economist at the OECD’s Economic Prospects Division in Paris. In the second half of the 1970’s, with a group of economists from Cambridge under the guidance of Professors Nicholas Kaldor and Wynne Godley, he worked on European and regional economic policies. The 1980s and 1990s saw him involved in the European programmes for the birth and development of incubators and science and technology parks. Formica collaborated with the European Business Network – a network of around 140 quality-certified EU BICs (Business and Innovation Centres) and 100 other organisations supporting the development and growth of innovative entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs – and for a decade (1995-2006) he was a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Association of Science Parks. As an expert advisor to the European Commission’s Directorate-General responsible for the programmes mentioned above, he was part of international teams for the design of incubators and science and technology parks (STP) in the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany and Finland. Outside Europe, Formica carried out similar activities in Australia, China, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Canada.

Professor Formica is the Founder of the International Entrepreneurship Academy. He was Professor of Economics with a particular focus on innovation and entrepreneurship at the Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, in Sweden. From 2010, he has been a Senior Research Fellow of the Innovational Value Institute at Maynooth University in Ireland where he leads an international research team on experimentation and simulation of high-expectation start-ups. At the C_LAB in Veneto, born out of collaboration between the Universities of Padua and Verona (C_LAB is a multidisciplinary laboratory for the development of innovation projects between the universities and businesses), Piero Formica in the role of professor and mentor conducts experiments for the development of innovative projects by students who attend the Lab. Formica conducts the same experimentation activity at the Business School ESAM in Paris

Professor Formica has received several awards and honours:

– The Innovation Luminary Award in June 2017 from the Open Innovation Science and Policy Group under the aegis of the European Union for his work on modern innovation policy.

– Honorary Professor bestowed by the University of Mar del Plata (Argentina).

– Senior Research Fellow of the Enterprise Research and Development Centre of the Business School at the University of Central England in Birmingham.

– Visiting Professor of Knowledge Economics and Entrepreneurship at the Jean Monnet Faculty of Political Studies at the Second University of Naples, Italy.

– Guest Professor at King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) and Curtin University of Technology, Curtin Business School (Perth, WA).

– Special International Professor of Knowledge Economics and Entrepreneurship at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (China).

–  International Professor (Marie Curie project) at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).

– International Professor of Knowledge Economics and Entrepreneurship at the Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates.

– Member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Nottingham, and the Board of Governors of the University of Bologna, Italy, where he held the Professorship of the Economics of Innovation in the Master programmes  ‘Business Law’ and ‘Technology Management’.

– Councillor of the World Certification Institute.

Professor Formica serves on the Editorial Boards of Industry and Higher Education; the International Journal of the Knowledge Economy; the International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development; the Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research; the South Asian Journal of Management; and Frontiers in Education. He writes for the digital edition of the Harvard Business Review.

Professor Formica has published extensively in the fields of knowledge economics, entrepreneurship and innovation. His most recent published works include: The Experimental Nature of New Venture Creation: Capitalizing on Open Innovation 2.0, Springer, 2013; Stories of Innovation for the Millennial Generation: The Lynceus Long View, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013; The Role of Creative Ignorance: Portraits of Path Finders and Path Creators, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; Grand Transformation Towards an Entrepreneurial Economy: Exploring the Void, Emerald Group Publishing, 2015; Entrepreneurial Renaissance: Cities Striving Towards an Era of Renaissance and Revival, Springer, 2017; Exploring the Culture of Open Innovation: Towards an Altruistic Model of Economy, Emerald Publishing Group, 2018; Il Bazar delle Follie: Pensieri sull’Italia nell’età della conoscenza, DuePuntoZero di Ad Maiora Editoria, 2018. Parole e Voci dell’Innovazione: Per una Cultura del Cambiamento, il Mulino, 2019, and Innovation and the Arts: The Value of Humanities Studies for Business, Emerald Publishing Group, 2020.