Nic Palmarini

Nic is one of the leading experts in innovation on ageing and longevity and the Director of UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA), a global organisation supported by an initial investment from the UK Government and Newcastle University to help co-innovate - together with citizens and private and public organisations - services, technologies and products and deliver them to the market through innovative, ethical, and sustainable business models.

NICA’s mission is to “add intelligence to ageing and longevity” by connecting and interpreting the personal, social, environmental, and economic dimensions underpinning different life stages. Nic is also the co-founder of the Edelman Longevity lab and the CEO of VOICE Italia Social Enterprise. Before, he was a research manager at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and Head of AI for Healthy Aging at IBM Research in Cambridge, USA. Previously he has been Director of the Human Centric Innovation Centre in Paris and Smart City Subject Matter Expert.

Trained in social and political studies, he developed deep expertise in leading heterogeneous teams and connecting dots across disciplines to bridge academic and industrial research with real-world applications to deliver return-on-community and return-on-business with a specific focus on longevity and the future effects and opportunities of the demographic revolution.

He holds a decade of experience in research on supporting older adults’ autonomy and independence, leading a global team to develop Human Activity Recognition techniques dedicated to older adults based on AI applied to IoT data. He led several programmes, including the first-of-a-kind “Living Safer”, the Internet of Caring Things and the City of Longevity. The work of his teams has been awarded with the Computer Honors Award, the United Nations for Aging Initiative, the Disability Matters - Market Place Award, the Silver Award in Patient partnership index, the People’s Vote at the London Design Biennale, the SilverEco Global award, the Best Collaboration in the Irish MedTech Awards.

He co-founded Talent Garden’s Innovation School, today’s most extensive European innovation hub, with 23 campuses in 8 Countries.

He is a professor of practice in Ageing, policy and planning at Newcastle University.

He is the author of five books and several publications. He is a member of several boards, including the Scientific Advisory Committee at McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA), GIMI (Global Management Innovation Institute), the Humane Technology Lab and the Scientific Board of Political Sciences and International Relations at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan and he is a trustee of the Laidlaw School trust.