Biography
Marina Cino Pagliarello is Senior Research Fellow at the European University Institute. Her work sits at the intersection of European higher education governance, EU policy, science and knowledge diplomacy, and research-policy engagement. At the EUI, she contributes to strategic institutional initiatives that connect academic research, European policy debates, external partnerships and public-facing intellectual platforms.
Her academic research focuses on the governance of higher education and knowledge institutions in Europe, with particular attention to the role of ideas, policy learning, institutional change, and the ways in which universities act as policy, diplomatic and transnational actors. She is especially interested in how universities and European university alliances contribute to European integration, knowledge diplomacy, public value, and the interface between research, policy and society.
Before taking up her current role, Dr Cino Pagliarello joined the Florence School of Transnational Governance in September 2023 as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow with the project HEIDI – Higher Education Informal Diplomacy. She was previously an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the London School of Economics and held academic positions at LSE, University College London, Queen Mary University of London and the University of Essex, where she taught EU politics, public policy and European political economy. She is also Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at University College London.
Her monograph, Constructing the Europe of Knowledge? The People and Politics of Ideas in European Education Policy, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022. Her work has appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Public Policy, West European Politics and Regulation & Governance. She holds a PhD in European Studies from the London School of Economics, an MSc in Economics of Arts and Culture from SDA Bocconi School of Management, and an MA in Modern History from the University of Pisa.
Alongside her academic career, Dr Cino Pagliarello has more than twenty years of experience as an education policy specialist and researcher, working with national and international organisations, governments, consultancies and European policy actors. Since 2012, she has been a Senior Research Associate with LSE Consulting, leading and contributing to international and comparative education projects for clients including the European Commission, the European Training Foundation, the British Council and the UK Government.
She also contributes to wider public and policy debate through keynote speeches, invited talks and public commentary on higher education, university alliances, science diplomacy, Italian and European politics. Her interventions often focus on governance, European integration, knowledge institutions, and the relationship between domestic politics, EU-level dynamics and Europe’s international role.
Her current work brings together academic expertise, policy analysis, strategic convening and institutional engagement, with a focus on how universities and knowledge institutions can contribute to Europe’s democratic resilience, international cooperation and capacity to respond to major societal transformations.