«Innovating is the way knowledge and power combine to change history»
This is how Piero Bassetti responded during a symposium about his private archive in 2009 when asked to summarize his experience into an inspiring philosophy.
The genesis of the Foundation lies in the relationship between knowledge and power in a profoundly innovative world.

At the age of thirty, Piero Bassetti was serving as a city councilor in Milan. He had earned a degree from Bocconi University with a thesis crafted firstly at Cornell University and later at the London School of Economics. Over subsequent decades he would take on various roles including that of President of the Region of Lombardy, member of the Trilateral Commission, parliamentarian, President of the Milan Chamber of Commerce and Chambers of Commerce Abroad, and eventually President of our foundation and of Globus et Locus. His approach is rooted in the belief that the true realm of politics should be explored through the question ‘What is possible, and what is right to do?’, because when people know more and can do more, the struggle to determine how the acquired surplus of power should be used immediately erupts.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bassetti wrote Oltre lo specchio di Alice, Governare l'innovazione nel cambiamento d'epoca (Beyond Alice's Looking Glass, Governing innovation through epochal change), conscious that today, innovation places us in front of Alice's mirror as she passes through it, bringing a time of fervent exploration. This makes responsibility in innovation ever more necessary.

 
 
The Bassetti Foundation addresses the themes of social innovation and civil economy by engaging in equal-footing dialogue with key stakeholders. We collaborate on projects with the cooperative sector, representative associations and public entities - from chambers of commerce to universities and governance institutions.

We are a civil society organization that views change through a historical-political cultural lens, noting that the last century threw up alternating phases of cooperation and ‘Thatcherite’ competition.
We believe that today however, the convergence of knowledge generated by innovation means that cooperation is the only path for those who do not wish to succumb to competition themselves. This is particularly relevant in an era marked by growing tensions in the sphere of coexistence. Rodriguez-Pose evokes the ‘vengeance of the places that don't matter’ to highlight the risk of leaving more and more segments of society out of the equation in a world of innovation.
The dialectic between cooperation and competition is played out along the fault lines of the major tensions in our society: rejuvenation and care, the denial or achievement of mobility, access to good jobs in the face of new challenges (including artificial intelligence) and skills. From the promises of sharing to new forms of ‘platform’ poverty, the digital transformation of information reshapes the distribution of power: an overabundance of means and a shrinking of ends.

It is time to revolutionize market hierarchies and breathe new life into social movements.

 
Awareness of the need for an open and responsible approach to research and innovation has made headway in Europe through the concept of RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation).
Since the early 2000s, the Bassetti Foundation has contributed to building, experimenting and consolidating the principles and practices of RRI through the conception, coordination and implementation of numerous projects financed by the European Commission and other public and private entities. These include SMART-map (EU H2020), TRANSFORM (EU H2020), Get it! Twice, MOSAIC (EU H2020), ENLIGHT (EU H2020), FETA, CO-VALUE (HORIZON EU) and GINEVRA (Interreg), all aimed at supporting territories, public and private bodies and organizations in the development of approaches capable of aligning processes of research and innovation with societal needs, expectations and values.

Since its pioneering contribution to the creation of one of the first consensus conferences in Italy in 2004, the Bassetti Foundation has consolidated its experience in the design and implementation of participatory processes connected to the technosciences, from models of public deliberation for inclusive policy-making (citizen juries) to structured multi-stakeholder co-creation paths working across many different levels (municipal, regional, national and European).

Since 2023, the Bassetti Foundation has coordinated the REINFORCING (HORIZON EU) project, aimed at building the central European hub of Open and Responsible Research and Innovation.

 
Training the responsible innovators of the future is one of our most challenging statutory objectives. To quote Veronica Barassi: The new generations, the driving force behind epochal change, are the offspring of algorithms. A newborn is already profiled by social networks while an elderly person is tracked by sensors and GPS, the data of both subject to trading by hundreds of companies. All of this occurs within the realm of big data, where quantity has become unprecedented, and quality largely mysterious.

A society that lives longer but produces fewer young people raises several issues of status and role that demographic change has brought up in other epochs: childhood ‘emerged’ at the end of the 18th century, adolescence in the 1980s. This is why the Bassetti Foundation feels a duty to immerse itself, alongside young people, in a commitment to designing the future.

A good example of this work (with a global body of students) is our decade-long collaboration with Milan Polytechnic, within a design school where the culture of design meets innovation. In recent years our course has been inspired by the concept of a Society for All Ages. Previous editions tackled the design of spaces for the sharing economy, from coworking to FabLabs. Other editions have not only involved biotechnology and nanotechnology but also the Driverless Society with its focus on autonomous driving technologies.

We are engaged in many other education institutions, one example being the University of Pavia where we have offered courses on Responsible Governance of Science and Innovation and on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analysis. But our teaching experience stretches well beyond Italy, as the students studying Theory of Knowledge at the International School in Utrecht can testify.

 
The Bassetti Foundation has always promoted dialogue with research protagonists, working together to enable broad audience engagement through lectures hosted by major universities, and seminars, research reports and book presentations in our conference suite in Milan.

We emphasize dialogue even in seemingly confrontational situations, every meeting offering the chance to move beyond a simple exchange of viewpoints into the co-design of responsible approaches to innovation problems.

Participants are joint stakeholders alongside the speakers, their protagonism facilitated by the search for confrontation. Equally important is the follow-up, the long tail of documentation and discussion: video is recorded, edited, and shared on the website and through social media, always available and free to access. A living archive.

Transcriptions of the first international lectures held between 2002 and 2005 were published by Rubettino Publishing.

 
The Foundation's purpose is to promote responsibility in innovation both nationally and internationally, by contributing to the design of policies and regulatory frameworks.

From pioneering experiences with consensus conferences on GMOs, through citizen juries and deliberative practices, we work to encourage free and cross-cutting dialogue, assisting individuals, institutions and associations in guiding the purposes of innovation, considered a matter for society as a whole.

Using an array of methodologies developed over the years, we arrange a symphony of interests from citizens, businesses, research, and institutions. We have built a network of collaborators and correspondents who work in academic and scientific dissemination, policy making, and entrepreneurship. Over thirty years, we have gained credibility, networking between society’s political and cultural dimensions and earning respect from stakeholders.

These Foundation activities have had a tangible and recognized impact on legislative activities at both regional and European levels.