Between 2010 and 2014, he was the first Italian to chair the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), and from 2011 until 2015, he was President of INAF.

[1] Bignami stood as a Democratic Party candidate for Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta and Liguria in the 2009 European Parliament election.

[7] In 2010, he was elected President of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), the first Italian to do so.

[2] Bignami received several honours, including the Bruno Rossi Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the Blaise Pascal Medal for Astrophysics from the European Academy of Sciences and the Von Karman Award from the International Academy of Astronautics.

[1] He also was named Officier of the Légion d’Honneur and the Ordre national du Mérite, and member of the Accademia dei Lincei[2] and of the French Academy of Sciences.