Senior Researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISTC) and co-head of the Semantic Technology Laboratory (STLab), he conducts research in Artificial Intelligence, with a particular focus on knowledge representation and engineering. His research focuses on developing methods and technologies to transform heterogeneous data and content into structured, interoperable, and reusable knowledge through ontologies, Ontology Design Patterns, Knowledge Graphs, and Semantic Web technologies. More recently, his research has focused on integrating these approaches with Machine Learning and Generative Artificial Intelligence, with particular attention to the use of Large Language Models in knowledge engineering processes and the development of neuro-symbolic approaches.
Education
He received his Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science in 2006 and his Master's Degree in Computer Science in 2010, graduating with honours (110/110 cum laude), from the University of Bologna.
In 2014, he received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Bologna, with a dissertation focusing on methodologies and software architectures for the extraction, transformation, and reuse of Knowledge Patterns on the Web. During his PhD, he spent research periods at Hypios Research in Paris and at the Laboratoire d’Informatique de Paris Nord (LIPN), Université Paris 13.
Academic and Research Career
Since 2010, he has conducted research at the National Research Council of Italy. After working as a research collaborator and postdoctoral research fellow at CNR-ISTC, he became a fixed-term Researcher in 2016 and a permanent Researcher in 2018. Since January 2023, he has been a Senior Researcher and co-head of the Semantic Technology Laboratory (STLab).
In 2020, he obtained the Italian National Scientific Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) for the position of Associate Professor in the academic recruitment fields 01/B1 – Computer Science and 09/H1 – Information Processing Systems.
Teaching Activities
He teaches at the University of Bologna in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, knowledge representation and engineering, and software engineering. He is an Adjunct Professor of Advanced Programming for the international Bachelor's Degree Programme in Genomics and of Knowledge Engineering for the international Master's Degree Programme in Artificial Intelligence. Previously, he was an Adjunct Professor of Knowledge Representation and Extraction for the international Master's Degree Programme in Digital Humanities and Digital Knowledge and of Theories and Systems of Artificial Intelligence.
He has also taught at Jönköping University and at international PhD schools and summer schools. He supervises undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students.
Scientific Activities
His research primarily focuses on knowledge representation, extraction, and engineering through ontologies, Knowledge Graphs, and Semantic Web technologies. In recent years, he has extended these research lines to neuro-symbolic and hybrid approaches integrating formal knowledge representations, Machine Learning, and Large Language Models.
He has participated in numerous national and European research projects, holding scientific coordination and leadership roles. He is the coordinator of the European INFINITY project and leads a research unit in the European HACID project – Hybrid Human Artificial Collective Intelligence in Open-Ended Decision Making.
Within FOSSR – Fostering Open Science in Social Science Research, funded under Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), he leads a research unit and a work package and is a member of the Executive Board. He was also the scientific lead for CNR-ISTC in the European WHOW project – Water Health Open Knowledge – as well as in projects and collaborations with public institutions, including ISPRA and the Digital Transformation Team of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
He has contributed to the development of Knowledge Graphs and semantic infrastructures in several domains, including Public Administration, cultural heritage, environment, health, and social sciences.
Institutional and Academic Roles
He is a member of the Institute Board of CNR-ISTC and of the Scientific Board of the CNR Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Cultural Heritage.
Since 2018, he has been co-head of the Semantic Technology Laboratory (STLab). Since 2020, he has served as Chair of the Association for Ontology Design & Patterns (ODPA), an international scientific association dedicated to research and best practices in ontology engineering.
Scientific and Editorial Committees
He is an Area Editor and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Web Semantics and a member of the Editorial Board of Information.
He regularly serves on the programme committees of major international conferences in the fields of the Semantic Web, Knowledge Engineering, and Ontology Engineering, where he has also held several chairing roles. He also regularly serves as a reviewer for international scientific journals and conferences.
Awards and Honours
In 2026, he received the Best Resource Paper Award at the Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC) for the paper Bench4KE: Benchmarking Automated Competency Question Generation.
He is a winner of the Global Challenge for the Extraction and Elicitation of United Nations General Assembly Resolutions and received the Best Poster Award at the Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2016). He also received the Most Innovative Approach award at the Challenge on Concept-Level Sentiment Analysis and was a finalist in the Semantic Web Challenge in 2011 and 2014.
In 2014, he received an AI*IA Young Researchers Mobility Grant.
Other Activities
He is co-founder of BUP Srl, a CNR spin-off company specialising
