Ana Costa is a professor at ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute (Political Economy Department of the School of Social Sciences) and researcher at DINAMIA’CET (Research Centre for Socioeconomic Change and the Territory). She graduated in Economics and concluded a Master in Development and International Cooperation at ISEG and a PhD in Economics at ISCTE. She is subdirector of DINÂMIA’CET. She is also member of the Observatory about Crisis and Alternatives (Centre for Social Studies - University of Coimbra), in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Research Interests: Political economy of austerity; Theoretical and epistemological foundations of the crisis of 2007-2008 and of the public policies to deal with the crisis; Values, (in)commensurability of value and valuation; Individual and collective decision making in context of moral difficulty; Institutional economics.

She holds a PhD in Economics from Iscte-IUL and the University of Bourgogne (France), a Master's degree in Economics and Human Resources Management and a degree in Sociology (ISCTE-IUL). She is full professor at the Department of Political Economy of ISCTE-IUL, and an integrated researcher at the Centre for Studies on Socioeconomic Change and Territory (DINÂMIA'CET). She is director of the Master's Degree in Human Resources Development Policies. She was coordinator of the FCT project, 'Flexible pay for flexible contracts? The dynamics of the relationship between wage policy and employment contracts at the firm level' between 2009-2013 (PTDC/EGE-ECO/108547/2008) and the FCT project 'Bringing Higher Education, Training and Quality of Employment Closer', between 2018-2022 (PTDC/SOC-SOC/30016/2017). She is the coordinator of the Youth Employment Observatory (DINAMIA-Iscte-IUL). Her main study and research interests include skills demand, compensation policies and labour market segmentation.

Luís Mah is an assistant professor in Development Studies at the Department of Political Economy at ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon. Between 2015-2022, he lectured at the Master in International Development and Cooperation and the PhD in Development Studies at ISEG-Lisbon School of Economics and Management/University of Lisbon. He has been working for almost 19 years with civil society actors and formerly led the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) in Portugal. He is particularly interested on the global implications of the (re)emergence of Asia and the international development cooperation of the European Union. He holds a PhD in Development Studies from LSE-London School of Economics and Political Science (London,2004), a MA in Political Science from Yonsei University (Seoul, 1996) and a Licenciate in Social Communication by Nova University Lisbon.

Full Professor in the Department of Political Economy at Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon. Aggregation (2020) and PhD in Economics (Iscte, 2020, 2005), Master's in Economics and Social Policy (ISEG, 1997), Degree in Sociology (Iscte, 1991). Vice-Rector for Education and Accreditation (2022-present).  Director of Iscte's PhD programme on transitions to sustainability. Teaching since 1991 in undergraduate, master's and doctoral programmes in the scientific and disciplinary areas of the history of economic thought, the political economy of the territory and sustainability. Research carried out as part of international and national projects, with European and national funding. National and international publications in the field of political economy, including subjects such as territory, innovation and sustainability. She was Director of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities (2019-2022), Deputy Director of the School of Social Sciences (2016-2019), and Director of the Department of Political Economy (2016-2019). She was also Vice-Chair of the Pedagogical Council (2014-2017) and a member of this and other Iscte bodies since the beginning of her teaching career. 

Paulo Marques is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Economy, Iscte. He is researcher at DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte. He currently coordinates the Youth Employment Observatory and the SOLID-JOB research project (both financed by FCT). His PhD thesis was developed in the field of political economy and was entitled: "Young People and Labour Market Segmentation in Europe: An Institutionalist Perspective". He contributes to the field of Comparative Political Economy and studies topics such as labour market segmentation and labour market policies. His PhD thesis received two awards: António Simões Lopes Prize, awarded by the Portuguese Economics Association (Best PhD in 2016), and Manuel Lopes Prize, awarded by the Portuguese Employment Services (IEFP).  His master dissertation received two awards: Jacques Delors Prize, awarded by the European Information Centre Jacques Delors; and the Silva Leal Prize (honourable mention), awarded by the Portuguese State Secretariat for Social Security and ISCTE. An article he published together with Isabel Salavisa in the Socio-Economic Review received the António Dornelas Prize, awarded by the Portuguese Ministry of Labour. Paulo Marques has published scientific articles in journals such as the Socio-Economic Review, Comparative European Politics, and European Journal of Industrial Relations.

Renato Miguel do Carmo is an associate professor (with habilitation) at the Department of Sociology of ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon and research fellow at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-IUL), Portugal. He is Director of the Inequality Observatory  and participates in the scientific coordination of COLABOR. Issues such as social and spatial inequalities, welfare state, employment and labor market, public policy, mobilities and social capital have been at the core of his research projects. His  publications have appeared in Current Sociology, European Societies, Journal of Civil Society, Sociologia Ruralis, Time & Society, Sociological Research Online, Geoforum, Community Development, European Planning Studies, Journal of Labor and Society, and others. He has published 37 books (24 as editor and 13 as author or co-author), five of them published by international publishing houses (Bristol University Press, Berghahn, Palgrave, Springer, Annablume). Since obtaining PhD, he has received several scientific awards such as: João Ferreira de Almeida Award 2023 (1st edition); António Dornelas Award 2022; CIES-Iscte I&D Awards 2022; awarded with the ISCTE-IUL prizes for one of best international articles published in 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2019; award to the best article in the field of regional studies published in Portuguese journals in 2008 (Portuguese Association for Regional Development, APDR); special Prize of the Jury 2009 for the best article published in the journal Análise Social by a young researcher.