Carlo Sessa, former President and Research Director at the Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems (ISINNOVA) and Member of the Executive Board of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA) is currently self-employed in the field of socio-economic research and system analysis.
Before joining ISINNOVA (formerly ISIS) in 1983, he was invited as Visiting Scholar at NYU, where he worked with Nobel Prize winner Wassily Leontieff.
While working as ISINNOVA partner, Carlo was the Coordinator of several EU research projects, in the 5th, 6th, 7th and H2020 Framework Programmes, and tenders, mostly in the fields of participatory foresight, interdisciplinary urban, transport, energy and environment studies. In this context, he led several participatory projects, involving panels of experts and citizens and aiming to raise the citizens awareness of science and technology prospects in the field of sustainable urban development (EU project RAISE), transport (EU project MOVE TOGETHER) coastal ecosystems (EU project AWARE) and governance (EU Project PASSO). Amongst several projects dealing with foresight issues, Carlo was involved as leading researcher in some EU funded Social Sciences and Humanities research projects: PASHMINA (Paradigm shifts modelling and innovative approaches); GLOBAL-IQ, aiming to enhance the ability to understand and manage global changes by means of a new generation of models and qualitative foresight tools; MEDPRO – Prospective analysis for the Mediterranean region; FLAGSHIP – Forward Looking Analysis of Grand Societal Challenges and Innovative Policies; and TRIGGER – Trends in Global Governance and Europe’s role.
In the context of the European ESPON programme, he contributed to territorial foresight studies, and recently was the Coordinator of the Applied Research Project Quality of Life measurement and methodology, delivering a concept and dashboard of Territorial Quality of Life (TQOL) indicators.
In association with EMEA, Carlo led several strategic foresight exercises in EMNES – Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic (ENPI project) and for the IEMED/EMEA Study for the Union for the Mediterranean, building youth employment friendly scenarios for the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Carlo was involved as Italian representative in the COST Action 332 on Land Use and Transport Planning in the ‘90s, and more recently as Italian representative in the COST Action TD 1408 on Interdisciplinarity in research programming and funding cycles (INTREPID).
