Chiara Bartolacci
Head of Business innovation
Chiara is Head of Business Innovation at ICONS, where she leads the Business Innovation unit and is responsible for its strategic development, market positioning, and growth.
In her role, she oversees business development and innovation strategy, shaping ICONS’ offer in exploitation, scalability, and uptake of research and innovation results across European programmes. She coordinates the unit’s activities and people, builds strategic partnerships with industry, research organizations, and public bodies, and drives the development of frameworks, services, and methodologies that support the transition from research outcomes to sustainable impact.
Her work focuses on strengthening ICONS’ positioning in business innovation, expanding project pipelines and opportunities, and ensuring that innovation pathways are economically viable, scalable, and aligned with market and policy dynamics.
Chiara holds an industrial PhD in Accounting and Management from the University of Macerata and has research experience at the Gothenburg Research Institute. She combines a strong analytical background with extensive cross-sector experience spanning innovation, healthcare, arts and culture, and design.
At ICONS, she contributes to organizational growth by developing people, structuring innovation processes, and embedding a long-term, impact-driven approach to business innovation.
