Co-creation, co-design

Thursday 9 April 2026, 14:30-15:30, Open Science Café with Marzia Mazzonetto and Elena Giglia

Program

14:30 – 14:40 Connection opens and welcome remarks by Elena Giglia
14:40 - 15:00 Presentation by Marzia Mazzonetto
15:00 – 15:30 Q&A and discussion

Summary

This webinar introduces the principles and practices of co-design and co-creation as essential approaches to developing more relevant, effective, and sustainable solutions in research and innovation. By starting with a true understanding of the needs of citizens, users, and stakeholders, co-design helps define challenges and priorities together. Co-creation then extends this involvement into the development, testing, and adapting stages of these solutions. During the webinar, we will share practical examples and tools to turn the contributions of everyone involved into real results, improving the quality and acceptance of innovations while reducing the risk of failure. Participants will gain practical insights on how to plan and run structured, inclusive, and impact-driven participatory processes.

Speakers

Elena Giglia (moderator): Head of the Open Access Project Unit at the University of Turin. She plays an active role in national and international working groups on Open Science and is a partner in several Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects. She was part of the Ministry of University and Research committee that drafted the National Plan for Open Science, which is soon to be published. She was also a member of the "Open Access and New Indicators" working group at ANVUR (2013-2014). She regularly participates in national and international conferences on various aspects of Open Science, including evaluation, and is highly active in training, raising awareness, and promoting these topics.

Marzia Mazzonetto (speaker): Has over twenty years of experience in public engagement within research and innovation (R&I). She is the CEO and founder of Stickydot, a Brussels-based SME that helps cities, regions, and research institutions develop participatory processes, from methodological design to facilitation and impact assessment. She currently coordinates the European project CO-VALUE, which integrates citizen engagement into knowledge valorisation processes. In the past, she led the MOSAIC project, working with Mission Cities on co-creation pathways to tackle climate challenges. Her work focuses on the factors that make participatory processes effective, the barriers to involvement, and the changes needed to strengthen a more inclusive approach to Public Engagement. With her background in social sciences, she designs and facilitates co-design, co-creation, and citizen science processes that create real value and change behaviours among those involved.

Target audience

This webinar is created for the Italian community and is aimed at researchers, research support staff, technicians, and technologists interested in learning more about Open Science and FAIR principles.

Video