Combining a humanistic cultural education with a keen interest in Information Technology and Communication brought him to a variety of working experience in the field of media, consultancy and local development strategies, deepening his understanding on technological aspects in the respective areas. He was the project manager for numerous research and international development projects in the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Research Framework Programme of the European Commission, dedicated above all to an effective integration of new communication technologies and access to cultural heritage, innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises and local sustainable development. He also supervised the development of strategic plans for innovation and research for government and businesses. From 2003 to 2005 he was a member of the Information Society Technologies Advisory Group (ISTAG) organised by the DG Information Society of the European Commission. For ISTAG he contributed to the following documents: (2004) Information Society Advisory Group Reports EU Commission, Consolidated report on Strategic Orientation; (2004) Grids, Distributed Systems and Service Architectures; (2003) Human resources, research infrastructures, funding mechanisms and partnership; (2003) Research results exploitation; (2002) Strategic orientations and priorities for IST in FP6 (2002). Additionally he worked for the European Parliament on issues relating to the problems of software patents and new directives on Intellectual Property Rights and was reviewer and evaluator of project proposals and results of research projects in DG INFSO of the European Commission.
