Nicola Palmarini is the Director of the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing, a global organisation supported by an initial investment from 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. Before, he was a research manager at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a $250 million academic-industry partnership for the responsible advancement of artificial intelligence and Head of AI for Healthy Aging at IBM Research in Cambridge, USA. 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 and led the first-of-a-kind IBM project for the Aging Population in the city of Bolzano (Italy) in 2011.
His primary field of research is within aging-related scenarios where personal dignity, human needs, business processes optimization and technology converge. In details his age-related areas of research are AI for healthy aging; loneliness as an accelerator of physical and cognitive diseases; ageism; and women and workplace.
He is an author, teacher, applied research scientist and TEDX speaker. The work of his teams has twice been awarded the at the United Nations for Aging Initiative and received the Disability Matters - Market Place Award and the SilverEco Global award.
He is Professor of practice in Ageing, Policy and planning, at Newcastle University.
He is the member of:
- Board member of International Scientific Advisory Committee at McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA)
- Board member of GIMI (Global Management Innovation Institute)
- The Gerontological Society of America;
- Women in Technology (WIT)
- Women in Technology International (WITI)
- The Scientific Board of Political Sciences and International Relations at Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan
- The Scientific Board of the Humane Technology Lab at Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan
He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Political Science at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milano and an undergraduate degree in Mass Communication & Society at the UoW in Seattle.
Today he works and lives in Newcastle.