Andrea Saltelli has worked on physical chemistry, environmental sciences, applied statistics, impact assessment and science for policy. His main disciplinary focus is on sensitivity analysis of model output, a discipline where statistical tools are used to interpret the output from mathematical or computational models, and on sensitivity auditing, an extension of sensitivity analysis to the entire evidence-generating process in a policy context.

He has worked at the European Commission, leading between 2005 and 2015 a unit of econometrics and applied statistics. From November 2016 till June 2020 adjunct professor at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT) - University of Bergen (UIB). He is presently visiting researcher at UIB-SVT, associate researcher at Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and academic counsellor at UPF Barcelona School of Management.

His most recent papers have tackled sensitivity analysis and auditing, science’s reproducibility crisis, impact assessment, ethics of quantification, regulatory capture, rankings of higher education, science's integrity and the post-truth discussion. In summer 2023 a book entitled The Politics of Modelling, Numbers Between Science and Policy, was published by Oxford University Press, where he contributed as editor and author.

Andrea gives courses in sensitivity analysis, sensitivity auditing, science integrity, and ethics of quantification.

I give some lessons in Course MNF990, Theory of Science and Ethics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Bergen, and I teach Scientific integrity, at the Training for the Doctoral INPhINIT Fellowship, SIRIS Academic and “la Caixa” in Girona (ES).

Academic article

• Saltelli, Andrea; Melsen, Lieke A.; Puy, Arnald (2025). Digital Twins of the Earth Between Vision and Fiction. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea (2025). Models and the common good. (external link)
• Melsen, Lieke A.; Puy, Arnald; Torfs, Paul J. J. F. et al. (2025). The rise of the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency in hydrology. (external link)
• Piano, Samuele Lo; Saltelli, Andrea (2025). Energy policy-making in the European Union between past and present. (external link)
• Kuc-Czarnecka, Marta; Saltelli, Andrea (2025). Ranking the rankers. An analysis of science-wide author databases of standardised citation indicators. (external link)
• Puy, Arnald; Bacon, Ethan; Carmona, Alba et al. (2025). Socio-environmental modeling shows physics-like confidence with water modeling surpassing it in numerical claims. (external link)
• Puy, Arnald; Roy, Pamphile; Saltelli, Andrea (2024). Discrepancy Measures for Global Sensitivity Analysis. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Gigerenzer, Gerd; Hulme, Mike et al. (2024). Bring digital twins back to Earth. (external link)
• Tarantola, Stefano; Ferretti, Federico; Piano, Samuele Lo et al. (2024). An annotated timeline of sensitivity analysis. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Puy, Arnald; Fiore, Monica Di (2024). Mathematical models: a state of exception. (external link)
• Kepp, Kasper P.; Aavitsland, Preben; Ballin, Marcel et al. (2024). Panel stacking is a threat to consensus statement validity. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Sturmberg, Joachim P.; Sarewitz, Daniel et al. (2023). What did COVID-19 really teach us about science, evidence and society?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Kuc-Czarnecka, Marta; Piano, Samuele Lo et al. (2023). Impact assessment culture in the European Union. Time for something new?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Puy, Arnald (2023). What can mathematical modelling contribute to a sociology of quantification?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea (2023). What is Post-normal Science? A Personal Encounter. (external link)
• Piano, Samuele Lo; Lőrincz, Máté János; Puy, Arnald et al. (2023). Unpacking the modeling process for energy policy making. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea (2023). Teaching scientific research integrity: A case study. (external link)
• Piano, Samuele Lo; Borgonovo, Emanuele; Maeso, Arnald Puy et al. (2022). Improving the reliability of cohesion policy databases. (external link)
• Maeso, Arnald Puy; Lankford, Bruce; Meier, Jonas et al. (2022). Large variations in global irrigation withdrawals caused by uncertain irrigation efficiencies. (external link)
• Maeso, Arnald Puy; Becker, William; Piano, Samuele Lo et al. (2022). A COMPREHENSIVE COMPARISON OF TOTAL-ORDER ESTIMATORS FOR GLOBAL SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS. (external link)
• Maeso, Arnald Puy; Beneventano, Pierfrancesco; Levin, Simon A. et al. (2022). Models with higher effective dimensions tend to produce more uncertain estimates. (external link)
• Piano, Samuele Lo; Sheikholeslami, Razi; Maeso, Arnald Puy et al. (2022). Unpacking the modelling process via sensitivity auditing. (external link)
• Fiore, Monica Di; Kuc-Czarnecka, Marta; Piano, Samuele Lo et al. (2022). The Challenge of Quantification: An Interdisciplinary Reading. (external link)
• Biggeri, Annibale; Saltelli, Andrea (2021). The Strange Numbers of Covid-19. (external link)
• Vineis, Paolo; Fiore, Monica Di; Portaluri, Tommaso et al. (2021). The Immunity Capital. (external link)
• Razavi, Saman; Jakeman, Anthony; Saltelli, Andrea et al. (2021). The Future of Sensitivity Analysis: An essential discipline for systems modeling and policy support. (external link)
• Becker, William; Paruolo, Paolo; Saltelli, Andrea (2021). Variable Selection in Regression Models Using Global Sensitivity Analysis. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Jakeman, Anthony; Razavi, Saman et al. (2021). Sensitivity analysis: A discipline coming of age. (external link)
• Piano, Samuele Lo; Ferretti, Federico; Maeso, Arnald Puy et al. (2021). Variance-based sensitivity analysis: The quest for better estimators and designs between explorativity and economy. (external link)
• Maeso, Arnald Puy; Piano, Samuele Lo; Saltelli, Andrea (2021). Is VARS more intuitive and efficient than Sobol’ indices?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Dankel, Dorothy Jane; Fiore, Monica Di et al. (2021). Science, the endless frontier of regulatory capture. (external link)
• Kuc‑Czarnecka, Marta; Piano, Samuele Lo; Saltelli, Andrea (2020). Quantitative Storytelling in the Making of a Composite Indicator. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Piano, Samuele Lo; Maeso, Arnald Puy (2020). Current models underestimate future irrigated areas. (external link)
• Sareen, Siddharth; Saltelli, Andrea; Rommetveit, Kjetil (2020). Ethics of quantification: illumination, obfuscation and performative legitimation. (external link)
• Maeso, Arnald Puy; Piano, Samuele Lo; Saltelli, Andrea (2020). A sensitivity analysis of the PAWN sensitivity index. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Benini, Lorenzo; Funtowicz, Silvio Oscar et al. (2020). The technique is never neutral. How methodological choices condition the generation of narratives for sustainability. (external link)
• Waltner-Toews, David; Biggeri, Annibale; Marchi, Bruna De et al. (2020). Pandemie post-normali. Perché CoViD-19 richiede un nuovo approccio alla scienza. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea (2020). Ethics of quantification or quantification of ethics?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Boulanger, Paul-Marie (2020). Technoscience, policy and the new media. Nexus or vortex?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Aleksankina, Ksenia; Becker, William et al. (2019). Why so many published sensitivity analyses are false: A systematic review of sensitivity analysis practices. (external link)
• Piano, Samuele Lo; Saltelli, Andrea; Sluijs, Jeroen P van der (2019). Silver as a Constraint for a Large-Scale Development of Solar Photovoltaics? Scenario-Making to the Year 2050 Supported by Expert Engagement and Global Sensitivity Analysis. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea (2019). A short comment on statistical versus mathematical modelling. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Piano, Samuele Lo (2018). Doing the Sum Right or the Right Sums? Techno-Optimist Numbers in Food Security Scenarios. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea (2018). Why science’s crisis should not become a political battling ground. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Giampietro, Mario (2017). What is wrong with evidence based policy, and how can it be improved?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Stark, Philip B. (2017). Statistics at the time of the crisis [Statistiche al tempo della crisi]. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Funtowicz, Silvio Oscar (2017). What is science’s crisis really about?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Piano, Samuele Lo (2017). Problematic Quantifications: a Critical Appraisal of Scenario Making for a Global ‘Sustainable’ Food Production. (external link)
• Pereira, Angela Guimaraes; Saltelli, Andrea (2017). Post-normal institutional identities: Quality assurance, reflexivity and ethos of care. (external link)
• Araujo, Luisa; Saltelli, Andrea; Schnepf, Sylke V. (2017). Do PISA data justify PISA-based education policy?. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Pereira, Ângela Guimarães; Sluijs, Jeroen P van der et al. (2013). What do i make of your latinorum? Sensitivity auditing of mathematical modelling. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.