Björn-Sören Gigler

Björn-Sören Gigler is Senior Digital Innovation Specialist at the Digital Innovation and Blockchain Unit in DG Connect in the European Commission. He is currently working on access-to-finance for digital innovations with a focus on disruptive technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Supercomputing and 5G.

Previously, he was Senior Innovation & Digital Economy Policy Advisor at the European Investment Bank (2016-18) providing advice on enhancing access to finance for disruptive technologies investment programs. From 1997-2016, Sören Gigler worked at the World Bank as Innovation Program Coordinator, Senior Governance Specialist and Economist. At the World Bank's Innovation Lab, he led Open Government Data, Citizen Feedback, Social Accountability and Mapping for Result programmes which leveraged digital innovations to foster economic development and improve the well-being of poor communities in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. He was Visiting Associate Professor for Political Economy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (2005-2016).

Mr. Gigler holds a Ph.D. in International Development from the London School of Economics, a M.S. in Economics from the University of Munich and a M.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University. He is the author of Development as Freedom in a Digital Age (World Bank 2015) and editor Closing the Feedback Loop: Can Technology address the Accountability Gap?’ books and has published over 20 articles on access to finance, digital innovations, information poverty, ICT for development and open government, including the Financing the Deep Tech Revolution study.