Pier Luigi Sacco

Pier Luigi Sacco is full professor at the University of Chieti-Pescara, interim director of the EIT-KIC AP10 Policy, senior advisor to the OECD and associate researcher at the metaLAB (at) Harvard and at Italy’s National Research Council. He has been the special advisor to the EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, visiting professor at Harvard University and faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society. He is the founding co-director of the BACH Center (Biobehavioral Arts and Culture for Health, social cohesion and sustainability) at the University of Chieti-Pescara, a new interdisciplinary center specialized in research on the bio-behavioral impacts of arts and culture experiences from the molecular biology, neuroscience, neurophysiology, behavioral sciences, and psychological viewpoints. His research sits at the crossroads of cognitive and affective psychology, decision and behavioral sciences, and translational cognitive and affective neuroscience. His scientific interests focus on translating state of the art scientific knowledge on the role of arts and culture as a platform for prosocial attitudes and prosocial behavioral change into system-wide policy approaches to collective intelligence and prosocial problem solving.

He regularly gives courses and invited lectures in major universities worldwide. He works and consults internationally in the fields of culture-led local development and is often invited as keynote speaker in major cultural policy conferences worldwide. He has published more than 200 papers on international peer-reviewed journals and edited books with major international publishers.