Hi/Ciao, my name is 
Nic Palmarini
About me ->












“As the demographic transition enters
a new stage of a longevity transition,
focus needs to extend beyond
an ageing society towards
a longevity society.

An ageing society focuses on changes
in the age structure of the population,
whereas a longevity society seeks
to exploit the advantages of longer
lives through changes in how we age
.

Achieving a longevity society requires
substantial changes in the life course
and social norms, and involves
an epidemiological transition towards
a focus on delaying the negative effects
of ageing”.

I am the Director of UK's National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) a world-leading organisation supported by an initial investment of £30M from UK Government and Newcastle University to help co-innovate - together with citizens and private and public organisations - services, technologies and products and deliver them to the market through innovative, ethical, and sustainable business models.

Its mission is to “add intelligence to ageing and longevity” by connecting and interpreting the personal, social, environmental and economic dimensions that underpin different stages of life. The purpose to create a world in which we all live better, for longer, caring about planet and people - present and future.

I am also the co-founder of the Edelman-NICA Longevity Lab, the first global lab born from the partnership of the PR global giant Edelman with NICA to untap the opportunities of the “evergreen economy” generated by a longevity society and I am the CEO of VOICE Italia, the first subsidiary of VOICE outside UK. NICA's sister organisation, VOICE, is a unique organisation, comprising a large network of citizens across the UK and internationally. VOICE members contribute immense insights, experience, ideas and wisdom to identify unmet needs, wants and aspirations to drive innovation for healthy ageing and longevity and improve research.
I am also an Affiliate at the Harvard MetaLab. Rooted in the arts and humanities, straddling scholarly, critical, and creative practice, it is a community of scholars, designers, artists, makers, technologists, curators, and educators dedicated to modeling new forms of cultural communication, creative and critical practice, and knowledge production.

Among the many applied research projects launched in my role as Director of NICA, the latest is City of Longevity a dynamic, evidence-based, open-source framework and a playful toolkit for cities to design and deliver practical actions to help residents and tourists live longer, healthier lives.a programme aiming to develop a model to help cities become a proactive actor to sustain the healthy longevity of citizens. City of Longevity has been launched on July 6th in a conference joined by global cities, from Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv. 

However, if you want to have an overview of the work I am leading at the Centre this is a glimpse of it. You might discover that my business interactions led me to have meetings in Downing Street, the US Senate, or the UN Assembly between others.

Before, I was global manager of AI for Healthy Ageing at IBM Research and Program Manager and Ethics AI lead of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a $250 million academic industry partnership for the responsible advancement of artificial intelligence. 

I am an author, teacher, applied research scientist and I'm interested in understanding how technologies and AI can help mitigate factors as loneliness and isolation, fight ageism (here’s my talk at TEDx) and support life of older adults while preserving independence and dignity in their life-stages progression. I am also interest in the dynamics about women, technology and the workplace and served as founding board member of amazing.community.

In my other explorations through innovative digital + human landscapes of interaction I was Head of Digital at Tinaba and co-founder of Talent Garden (TAG) Innovation School the largest European co-working and innovation hub. Born in Italy the Innovation School is now active with 23 campuses in 8 different countries. It runs 5 Full time Masters, 10 Masterclasses, has trained more than 3,500 professionals, and involved 80 companies in training programs.

In my IBM career, I served as Global Manager of Ai for Healthy Aging in Cambridge; Director of Human Centric Solution Center in Paris; Head of Corporate Brand System and Social media and head of Customer Experience, Brand and Usability both in IBM Italy, Milano.
Prior to joining IBM, I was director at McCann-Erikson Interactive and served as director in several Adv and Markom agencies.

With my teams we won several awards included: the United Nation for Ageing Initiative / Best project – London Design Biennale with Flip the Script /  ComputerWorld Honours Award, Laureate / Disability Matters - Market Place Award / Silver Eco Award – City of Longevity / Best Collaboration in MedTech Award.

I enjoy writing and am particularly excited about the interaction of technology and humans. I wrote four books all published by Egea/Università Bocconi; my former (Le Infiltrate) was dedicated to the dramatic lack of women in STEM careers and its impact on future society, while the last (Immortali) is a journey through the opportunities of the longevity revolution and the chances of immortality provided by AI and broad research.

I am one of the co-authors of the book Live Longer with AI which explore how emerging tehcnologies are helping us to start regarding health as our greatest personal and societal asset to protect.

I feel strongly that researchers need to engage with the public. I have engaged in a variety of outreach activities, from showcasing applied research in business innovation plays, to public speaking, to hosting podcast on sustainability, to organizing and participating in events aimed at the public, in volunteering.

I'm glad that the public is interested in what I study and I do, and I'm keen to share my passion with others. I also like to think about the ways in which the longevity revolution will impact society and how technologies will tackle it; this is something that I do through my role as member of the scientific board of the Humane Technology Lab at Università Cattolica of Milan (of which I am also a Notable Alumni) and serving as Board member of International Scientific Advisory Committee at the Mc Master institute for research on aging between others. I am also a trustee of the Laidlaw School Trust.

I have an account on LinkedIn which I check constantly. I am an active Twitter user, where my username is @nipalm.

You can find a more formal CV here. (Updating it)

For speaking opportunites you can reach Gaia my agent at Elastica.