Ilaria is currently a PhD researcher at the Institute for European Law - KU Leuven and a doctoral fellow at the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders). She is also a PhD researcher at the Centre for European Law of the Université libre de Bruxelles (joint PhD).

Prior to that, she was a teaching assistant at the Institute for European Law and a research associate in the framework of the ERC project RESHUFFLE.
She obtained a Master's degree in Law from the University of Naples Federico II (summa cum laude). During her studies, she spent one semester at the UC Louvain and one year at the University of Nantes as an exchange student. She completed her education with an LL.M. in European Law at the Université libre de Bruxelles (magna cum laude, first class honours).
Prior to joining the Institute for European Law (KU Leuven), Ilaria also worked as a research and coordination assistant at the Université libre de Bruxelles.
Her areas of research include EU Constitutional law and Fundamental Rights. At the Institute for European Law, Ilaria has been a teaching assistant for several EU courses and has coached the European Law Moot Court team from 2021 to 2024.

Short description of Ilaria's PhD proposal:

The scope of application of EU fundamental rights in light of the diversification of EU law sources (Promotor: Prof. Elise Muir)

The EU has always had a strong legal character and has driven policy change in the Member States mainly through the use of law and rules. The latter are identified as the “linking factor” that shapes the scope of EU law and allows to activate fundamental rights protection at the level of the EU. The EU, however, also governs through different types of instruments, such as soft law, international agreements, or financial incentives. When EU law obligations are imposed by means of processes of EU law-making that differ from the traditional way of making EU rules, it becomes more difficult for national actors and individuals to assess whether EU fundamental rights are of relevance in certain cases. This is particularly remarkable in the context of the new development of “EU governance through funding”. The use of EU funds and funding conditionality strongly influences the national legal orders and has consequences on the limits of Member States’ obligations with respect to fundamental rights.