Alessandro Annoni is the Head of the Digital Economy Unit at the European Commission – Joint Research Centre. His unit provides techno-socio-economic research in support to Digital Transformation analysing, among others, data value chains and the conditions relating to their development. The Unit is also responsible for the European Observatory for Artificial Intelligence (AI Watch) and ensures the technical coordination of the INSPIRE Directive aiming at the development of the European Spatial Data Infrastructure.  Alessandro graduated in Physics from the University of Milan and before joining the EC in 1997, he worked for two decades in the private sector managing companies specialised in Remote Sensing, Geomatics, Software and Information Systems development.  Alessandro is member of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Program Board and has been awarded the 2013 Ian McHarg Medal of the European Geosciences Union reserved for distinguished research in Information Technology applied to Earth and space sciences. In 2016 he received the Digital Earth Science and Technology Contribution Award from the International Society for Digital Earth for outstanding contribution to advancing the development of Digital Earth.