I am a researcher focusing on socio-economic research, with more than 15 years of working experience in the field of research and innovation in agriculture and rural areas. I have had the opportunity to work with an interdisciplinary and multi-actor approach since the beginning of my career. I have been employed in farmers organizations, NGOs, SMEs, Research Institutions and Public Administration experiencing the AKIS approach from different points of view.

I hold a PhD in Environmental and Development Economics in 2015 obtained from the University of Roma Tre. My doctoral research focused on the application of transition theory to Organic Farming in Europe and I got an award for her conference paper being the “best PhD paper” in the conference “Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society” in September 2015. Graduated in Geography at University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2003 with an experimental thesis on organic farming in Rome Municipality; in 2009 I got an MSc in Ecological Economics at Edinburgh University.  In 2014 I was a research fellow at the Agro-environmental research centre of the University of Pisa on socio-economic evaluation of food systems. In 2016-2017, I did a post doc at Bioversity International, the CGIAR centre for agricultural biodiversity where she also worked as consultant till the end of 2018.

Since 2003, I have been employed at the Italian Association for Organic Farming (AIAB), where I first focused on Agriculture and Conservation interaction, before moving in 2009 to coordination of the AIAB research office activities and being directly involved in EU funded Research projects (FP7, H2020, HE, National and CAP funds) on multiple issues (e.g. agrobiodiversity, agroecology, weed management, organic wine production, organic arable crops, urban farming). Since 2017, I have been a free lands consultant working for (1) Rete Semi Rurali on the H2020 CAPSELLA project and on specific activities with ARSIAL (Lazio Regional Innovation Agency), (2) for AMIGO s.r.l, on the H2020 DESIRA where I was one of the Living Lab coordinators, for  (3) the American University of Rome, where she teach the Sustainable food systems course between 2017 and 2022. She is currently consultant for the CHIEAM IAMB, where she is currently supporting the Ministry of agriculture, food sovereignty and forestry – Masaf, Research and experimentation Office in the management of ERA-net actions (SUSAN, ICTAGRIFOOD, Green Era HUB) and the development process of the European Research Partnerships (AGROECOLOGY, FOOD SYSTEMS and Agriculture of Data).

Since 2022, I am currently a post doc at the University of Pisa, PAGE group in the Horizon Europe CODECS, with a specific role in Living Lab coordination.

KEY RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems
• Co-innovation and mutual learning processes
• Agroecology and digitalization
• Digitalization for sustainable development

CORE COMPETENCES

• Qualitative Research
• Rural Development
• Multiactor approaches
• Stakeholders engagement

CURRENT EU-FUNDED PROJECTS

CODECS 

See the list of all projects the group is involved in here

SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Ortolani, L. Lai, M.B., Mignani, C., Ferrara, A. Silvi, A. Brunori, G. Metodi e approcci per l’identificazione di obiettivi e priorità per la digitalizzazione della filiera ovina in Toscana: il caso del Caseificio di Manciano. LIX Convegno SIDEA. Agricoltura, alimentazione e mondo rurale di fronte ai cambiamenti dello scenario globale: politiche e strategie per la sostenibilità e la resilienza. Orosei, Italy. 20-21 September 2023. Paper accepted.

Vergamini, D. Lepore, F. Ortolani, L. Brunori, G. (2023) Developing a taxonomy of costs and benefits for the digitalization of Agriculture and Rural Areas. LIX Convegno SIDEA. Agricoltura, alimentazione e mondo rurale di fronte ai cambiamenti dello scenario globale: politiche e strategie per la sostenibilità e la resilienza. Orosei, Italy. 20-21 September 2023. Paper accepted.

Ortolani, L. (2023) Digitalization pathways to support rural communities’ actions in critical context. XXIXth European Society for Rural Sociology Congress. Crises and the futures of rural areas. Rennes, France. July 3-7 2023.

Mariani, M. Ortolani, L. Brunori, G. (2023) Rural entrepreneurship in the Organic Fruit Breeding sector through the lens of Social Innovation. XXIXth European Society for Rural Sociology Congress. Crises and the futures of rural areas. Rennes, France. July 3-7 2023.

Ferrari, A., Lepore, F., Ortolani, L., & Brunori, G. (2023). Eliciting the Double-edged Impact of Digitalisation: a Case Study in Rural Areas. arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.05078. IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE’23).

Lepore, F. Brunori, G., Baco, M.F., Ferrari, A. Ortolani, L. (2022) Building impact pathways for digitalization in agriculture and rural areas: the case of hydrogeological risk management in North of Tuscany. ERSA Congress. 22-26 August 2022. Pecs, Hungary.

Check my other publications:

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4606-2323