Francesca is Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design where she serves as delegate of Director for the research activity. She is expert in Participatory Design (PD) applied to the fields of service design, social innovation, and public sector innovation. She has been actively working as researcher for various EU projects in the FP7 programme and in H2020 (Peripheria, My Neighborhood, Smart Campus, Life 2.0, SIC, SISCODE, easyRights, NetZeroCities). Her research interests include the relation between design culture and organizational change.

Francesca has a Ph.D. in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering. She acts as coordinator of ORBIS under Horizon Europe (2023-2026). She is author of many publications in journals and conference.