The challenges posed by the sustainable development of the Planet, health crises, new and dramatic conflicts, and other emergencies involving the Earth's inhabitants require a change of pace to the advances in science and technology, including as a contribution to the creation of solutions in the short term and in the development of economic and development opportunities.

We are witnessing today a strong acceleration of the processes of scientific research and the evolution of its development paradigms, favored by digitization and advances in artificial intelligence globally. Italy has all the prerequisites to play a leading role in this context.

This opportunity can and must be strongly reinforced by an action of promotion of Italian science and technology at the international level, as promoted by the action of "scientific diplomacy" promoted by MAECI as part of the Promotion of the Country System. In particular, this action is carried out towards American research centers, companies, accelerators and incubators, once again protagonists of research and technology at the global level and generators of opportunities for social and economic growth.

The Boston area has long constituted, with its network of major universities, innovative companies and financial centers, a global hub of research and innovation, a unique excellence in the global scenario. The role of the Science and Technology Advisor at the Consulate General of Boston is set in this context of opportunity and growth, a role to be fulfilled with the necessary agility to seize, in the speed of the processes, every possible opportunity for development and collaboration, favoring the policies and lines of action of the Italian government and MAECI in support of the world of Italian research and entrepreneurship, start-ups and researchers.

The Consul General of Boston wanted to establish the new Office for Scientific, Technological and Commercial Cooperation, entrusting its responsibility to the Science and Technology Advisor, with the function of scientific attaché. This is an important prospect destined to trace a strong outline in the future of bilateral relations between Italy and the Boston area.

Personally, I feel strongly motivated to play this role in the service of the country, based on an exciting personal journey in the world of research and in the cadres of the Italian university, a journey rich in international experiences and collaborations with the United States, a contact that has never been interrupted and a strong stimulus for relations with the world of science and technology in the US.