About Us
Telling innovation, making it accessible, sharing it
Innovation for All
Pavia Innovation Week is a space where science, culture, and ideas meet, intersect, and become accessible to anyone who wants to understand how the world around us is changing.
The goal is simple: to make the conversation about innovation open, relevant, and understandable by bringing discussions and themes that concern us all into squares, theatres, bookstores, and universities.
A Lasting Platform
Pavia Innovation Week is not just an event.
It is a platform that endures over time—an annual gathering that strengthens the connection between research, local institutions, businesses, and citizens. A way of enhancing what Pavia has always been: a place where people study, experiment, and shape the future.
Pavia is a city that has built its identity on scientific research and knowledge. From Alessandro Volta’s invention of the electric battery to Camillo Golgi’s groundbreaking discoveries on the nervous system—earning him Italy’s first Nobel Prize in science—here, science is not only history, but a living tradition that continues to generate innovation.
It is also a human-scale university city, shaped by a young and international community and a historic center that preserves remarkable architecture and spaces of great beauty. Theatres, bookstores, squares, historic buildings, and colleges become the natural setting for a festival that takes the conversation on innovation beyond academic boundaries, making it open and shared.
Pavia, ultimately, is a city to experience and explore. The landscape along the Ticino River, its great churches, urban pathways, and rich culinary traditions make it a destination that combines high-level cultural content with quality of life. An ideal place to slow down, discover, listen, taste, and stay.
The Formats of Pavia Innovation Week
The festival features a range of formats designed to explore innovation and turn it into a tangible experience.
Signature Talks
Interviews with leading international figures from the worlds of science and culture.
Stories of Innovation
Open and accessible public talks designed to make science engaging and understandable
Science for All
Open and accessible public talks designed to make science engaging and understandable
Conversations
Panels and roundtables bringing together scientists, philosophers, writers, and thinkers.
Science on Stage
Theatrical performances dedicated to scientific storytelling and public engagement.
Family lab
Hands-on workshops designed for families.
Book Store
Book presentations and conversations with authors.
Guided Tours
City itineraries exploring the places that define Pavia’s innovation heritage.
Pavia Innovation Week
A network of institutions, businesses and organizations that share a vision
Pavia Innovation Week is born from the collaboration between entities that believe in the value of knowledge, research, and innovation as drivers of cultural and social development. The festival’s partners help make this space for dialogue possible by providing expertise, resources, and planning.
It is thanks to this network that the festival can grow over time, strengthening the connection between the region, businesses, universities, and the community. This collaboration goes beyond a single event and builds, year after year, a shared platform for looking to the future.
Scientific Committee
The Scientific Committee of Pavia Innovation Week brings together leading figures from the national and international scientific, cultural, and academic communities. A diverse group of scholars and professionals who help shape the festival’s content, ensuring quality, intellectual rigor, and openness to dialogue.
Their role is to guide the program, foster meaningful exchange, and ensure that each event offers an accessible and enriching opportunity for reflection.
Massimo Sideri
Maria Chiara Carrozza
Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Former Minister of Education, Universities and Research; Former President of the National Research Council (CNR)
Valentina Sumini
Space Architect; Researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Professor at Politecnico di Torino
Roberto Battiston
Physicist; Former President of the Italian Space Agency (ASI); Former President of the European Committee on Space Sciences
Giorgio Metta
Scientific Director, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)
Massimiano Bucchi
Alessandro Reali
Rector, University of Pavia