Mario has a PhD in Economics from the University of Manchester and he has a BSc and an MSc in mechanical engineering from Politecnico di Torino. He teaches Management of Innovation and Technology Strategy at undergraduate, master and postgraduate level and in the Alta Scuola Politecnica. Mario sits in the scientific committee of the PhD program in “Economics and Management of Technology” at Politecnico di Torino and University of Bergamo and of the PhD program in “Economics of Institutions and Creativity” at University of Torino.
His main research interest is in the Economics and Management of Innovation. His numerous publications in international journals cover research and innovation management issues, technology policies and empirical studies on the determinants of innovative activity. He has been involved in several research projects and his research has attracted funds and sponsorships to Politecnico di Torino from several Institutions such as the European Commission, the Italian Ministry for Research, the Italian Ministry of Industry, the Italian Authority for Communications and several research foundations, private consultancy companies, banks and industry associations.
Mario Calderini is the delegate for Public Policies of the Fondazione COTEC per l’Innovazione Tecnologica, under the Honorary Presidency of Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic. He is the co-director of Fondazione Rosselli’s Laboratorio di Economia dell’Innovazione “Franco Momigliano” and has a permanent cooperation with Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli. He is currently a member of the Intellectual Property Rights Commission at Politecnico di Torino and a member of the Dean’s board for Politecnico’s Fourth Faculty of Management.
Mario Calderini is also a member of the Scientific Committee of “Quaestio”, the Lombardy Region System for Research and Technology Transfer Centres Evaluation, and sits in the permanent product liability working group established by the European Community in order to monitor the impact of Directive 85/374/CE on liability for defective products. In 2005 he joined the expert group of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) with the task of peer reviewing the UN’s World Investment Report 2005. In 2006 he was nominated by the Italian Delegation as an expert to the Administrative Council of the European Patent Office (EPO). In the recent past, he was a member of the National Physics of the Matter Institute International Evaluation Panel and the national representative in the European Commission’s Board for Regional Technology Advisor Centre. He is currently the president of Finpiemonte, the financial agency for the industrial development of Piedmont.