Biography

Gaia Taffoni is Assistant Professor at the EUI's Florence School of Transnational Governance, where she teaches policy evaluation and anticipatory policy skills in the Master of Transnational Governance. Her research asks how governments prepare for the long-term challenges and how evidence, from evaluations to strategic foresight, gets used in policy decisions. Her recent work examines the governance of anticipation and the place of foresight in policymaking. It builds on a longer focus on how evidence and procedures shape policy.

She led EVALUSE, a project on how evaluations are used in public policy, and has worked with the RegTrust project at the University of Lausanne on trust and regulation. Earlier, she worked with the ERC project Protego on regulatory procedures such as consultation and impact assessment across EU member states and the UK.

Alongside her teaching in the MTnG's programme, Gaia trains executives and senior public officials on foresight and anticipatory skills for leadership and policymaking; she is a Member of the Scientific Board of the IIF – Italian Institute for the Future, she sits on the International Advisory Board of SustainGov: a project working with the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs on new approaches to policy development; and she edits the STG Policy Papers Collection. She holds a PhD from the University of Milan and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at University College London (UCL) and Teaching Assistant at King’s College London.

Research projects, clusters and working groups

Ongoing

• Evaluation use in public policy
• Expert Knowledge and Authority in Transformative Times

Completed

• Procedural Tools for Effective Governance
• Transnational Democracy in the 21st century

Executive Education Involvement

• Unboxing the Commission: Engaging Effectively with the EU Executive

Fields of expertise

Recent research output

• DE VITO, Laura; TAFFONI, Gaia (2026), Evidence for the future? : strategic foresight as a source of evidence for policymaking, Article
• KAMKHAJI, Jonathan; MELLONI, Erica; TAFFONI, Gaia; VASILESCU, Cristina Mihaela (2025), Teaching with P-Cube : practical lessons for students and teachers, Article
• DUNLOP, Claire; KAMKHAJI, Jonathan; RADAELLI, Claudio M.; TAFFONI, Gaia; WAGEMANN, Claudius (2024), Designing rulemaking : how regulatory policy instruments matter for governance, Book
• CAGNIN, Cristiano; FOUBERT, Thierry; ANSTEY, Joanna; MILLER, Riel; TAFFONI, Gaia; LAFONT, Elodie (2024), Navigating the future : the role of geopolitics in shaping the education and skills of the next generation, Other
• ESPOSITO, Giovanni; TAFFONI, Gaia; TERLIZZI, Andrea; CRUTZEN, Nathalie (2024), Between institutions and narratives : understanding collective action in innovation policy processes, Article
• DE VITO, Laura; TAFFONI, Gaia (2023), Strategic foresight and policy evaluation : insights for an integrated approach, Article