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Vecchi Giancarlo

Associate Professor

Giancarlo Vecchi, associate professor of Public Policy at the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano. He teaches “Public Analysis” and “Policy Design & Evaluation”. Past president of the Italian Evaluation Society (2002-2003). Recent research regards: Cybersecurity as a Public Policy. The Institutionalization of platform and network security in the EU and Italy; The modernization of the Italian Judicial system; The development of digitization in the Italian & European public sector. The Evaluation of protected areas policy; P-Cube: Teaching Public Policy through an educational digital game.

His key qualifications are in the field of Public Policy Analysis, applied to the following aspects: institutional and capacity building; public sector reforms (with special attention to ICT-driven innovations in the public sector); policy design & public policy evaluation.

Member of the Editorial Board of the journal: Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione (2020-); member of the Scientific Committee of the Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione (2016-). Member of the Editorial Board of the journal: Quaderni di Organizzazione e Trasformazione Digitale della Giustizia (2023-)

Member of the Scientific Committee of the Journal: La Magistratura, journal of the Italian National Association of the Judiciary.

Member of the Scientific Committee at the Institute de Derecho Local (IDL), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, from September 27th, 2021.

Member of the IPPA College, International Public Policy Association, representing the Politecnico di Milano (from January 2021).

Career

Master of Science: Political Science (Public administration), Post-Graduate Degree in Administration Sciences (November 29th, 1991); Università degli Studi di Bologna. Università di Bologna – SPISA Scuola di specializzazione in studi sull’amministrazione pubblica (Postgraduate School on Public Administration Studies)

Research

His key qualifications are in the field of Public Policy Analysis, applied to the following aspects: institutional and capacity building; public sector reforms (with special attention to ICT-driven innovations in the public sector); policy design & public policy evaluation. Duting the last decade the main topics regard the digitalization of the public sector, the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, the cybersecurity policies in Italy and Europe.

Selected Publications

Recent publications:

  1. Di Giulio M. and G. Vecchi. 2025. Policy Making and the Digitalization of the Public Sector. Actors and Strategies in Italy. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan (ISBN: 978-3-031-83954-2) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-83955-9
  2. Vecchi G. 2025. "P-Cube educational digital game -The Urban Innovation scenario." Teaching Public Administration, DOI: 10.1177/01447394251350663
  3. Dente B. and Vecchi G. 2024. “Teaching Public Policy by Interactive Pedagogy.” In E. St Denny and Ph. Zittoun (eds) Handbook of Teaching Public Policy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 48-63 (forthcoming) (ISBN 978 1 80037 810 0).
  4. Pernici B., Bono C., Piro L., Del Treste M., e Vecchi G. 2023. "Improving the Analysis of the Judiciary Performance. The Use of Data Mining Techniques to Assess the Timeliness of Civil Trials." International Journal of Public Sector Management, DOI: 10.1108/IJPSM-02-2023-0058 (forthcoming).
  5. Di Giulio M. & G. Vecchi. 2023. "How ‘Institutionalization’ can work. Structuring Governance for Digital Transformation in Italy." Review of Policy Research 40(3): 406–432
  6. Di Giulio M. & G. Vecchi. 2023. "Implementing digitization in the public sector. Technologies, agency, and governance" Public Policy and Administration 38(2): 133-158.
  7. Di Giulio M. and G. Vecchi. 2018. "Multi-Level Policy Implementation and the Where of Learning. The Case of the Information System for School Buildings in Italy." Policy Sciences (forthcoming; DOI 10.1007/s11077-018-9326 4) (https://link.springer.com/journal/11077).
  8. Busetti S. and G. Vecchi. 2018. “Process Tracing Change Management: The Reform of the Italian Judiciary.” International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 31(5): 566-582 (DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-06-2017-0158).
  9. Kamkhaji J. & G. Vecchi. 2024. “Policy and organizational learning in judicial reform: evidence from Italy.” Policy & Politics, on-line 8 Juanuary 2024 https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000019.
  10. Vecchi G. 2024. “Problemi di policy e sperimentazione amministrativa: l’evoluzione dei processi di digitalizzazione e l’emergere degli ecosistemi di innovazione.” Rassegna Italiana Di Valutazione n. 85-86, pp. 95-107. ISSN: 1826-0713; ISSN online 1972-5027. Doi: 10.3280/RIV2023-085005.
  11. Amoretti F., S. Busetti, M.S. Righettini & G. Vecchi. 2024. "Cybersecurity Politics and Policies: Actors, Strategies and Challenges." Rivista Italiana di Politiche Pubbliche, 1: 5-18. DOI: 10.1483/113150.
  12. Kamkhaji J., M. Santaniello & G. Vecchi. 2024. "Cybersecurity Policy in the European Union. Comparing the Design of Cybersecurity Agencies in Italy and Germany with the Institutional Grammar." Rivista Italiana di Politiche Pubbliche, 1: 79-112. DOI: 10.1483/113153.
  13. Melloni E., F. Cuomo & G. Vecchi. 2024. “Context-related mechanisms of policy sustainability: Governance reform of the protected areas in Lombardy.” Environmental Policy & Governance (forthcoming), https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2106.

Community service

Evaluation of the institution process concerning the Agencies of the local public transport in the Lombardia region (2019-20).

Research “Quality indicators to monitor the local government performance. Theoretical insights and benchmarking.” Realized with Tommaso Agasisti and Jonathan Kamkhaji. Financed by Ifel, Anci and Fondazione per la sussidiarietà (2020-23).

Research and coordinator of the Polimi/Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering Unit “P-Cube Playing Public Policy”: realization of the scenario of Urban Innovation with 15 missions, part of the educational digital game P-Cube. In partnership with Fondazione Politecnico di Milano (ITA), Technische Universiteit Delft (NL), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (SP), La Science pour la démocratie (BE), Université du Luxembourg (LU), European Association for Local Democracy – ALDA. Ricerca finanziata con fondi Erasmus+ (2020-23).

Responsible of the research “Àncora - Job descriptions and competences of the manager positions of the Ministry of Justice.” For the Scuola Nazionale dell’Amministrazione (Italian National School for the Public Administration), in partnership with Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Politecnico di Bari (2021-2024).

Responsible of the Politecnico di Milano research unit and coordinator of the research for the whole organizational and management tasks, for the research: “New Generation Office for the Trials”, in partnership with Università di Torino (research coordinator) and the public university of the Nord-West Italian regions (Lombardia, Piemonte, Liguria). Research financed by the Ministrey of Justice (2022-2023).

Responsible of the Politecnico di Milano unit: research Cybersecurity (as a) Public Policy. The institutionalization of platform and network security in the EU and Italy. Local Scientific Coordinator of the research in partnership with Università di Salerno, Università di Padova and Unversità di Teramo. Financed by the Ministry of University (PRIN 2020) (2022-)

Co-coordinator of the project: Reorganising the Italian High Court of Cassation : work processes analysis and implementation of a performance monitoring and evaluation system. Financed by the Ministry of Justice and the Conference of Italian University Rectors (2022-2025)


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