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.

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.

Joaquim J.S. Ramalho graduated in Economics from the University of Evora in 1993 and received a masters degree in Mathematics Applied to Economics and Management from the Technical University of Lisbon (ISEG-UTL) in 1996. In 2002, he completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Bristol. Since 2016, he is Professor at ISCTE-IUL (Dep. Economics) and before that he taught at the University of Evora for 23 years. His research focuses on theoretical and applied microeconometrics, and he has published in a variety of academic journals, including the Journal of Econometrics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Econometric Reviews, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis and International Journal of Industrial Organization.

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.

First as Lawyer and after as jurisconsult Pedro Quartin Graça has large experience on providing preemptive legal support in legal areas as advertising law, corporate law and law of the sea. He is a consultant in Corporate and Company Law, Environmental Law and Law of the Sea as well as in Advertising, Consumer and Intellectual Property Law. Assistant Professor at ISCTE - IUL (Portugal) and former President of the 1st Section of the Jury of Ethics of the Advertising Selfregulation (former ICAP - Portugal). Pedro Quartin Graça has a large number of books and academic publications in Portuguese, German and Chinese concerning advertising law, law of the sea, european law and consumer law. Pedro Quartin Graça has a wide international experience, namely concerning the relations with Africa, Asia and Central America countries. He teached law at the Chinese Academy of Governance (former China National School of Administration - CNSA), China - Europe Public Administration Project, People's Republic of China, at the Global Distance Learning Network of World Bank for East Timor and at the ProPALOP-TL ISC PNUD postgraduation in Angola. From 2005 until 2009 he served as a Member of the Parliament of Portugal (10th parliamentary term). He was also a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantee; of the Committee on Social Security and Labour; of the Sub-Committee on Internal Security; of the Sub-Committee on Media and Fundamental Rights and of the Sub-Committee on Equal Opportunities. Member of the Portuguese national delegation into the 97th Session of the International Labour Conference - International Labour Organization, Genève, Switzerland. Member of the Technical and Scientific Committee in order to monitor the application of the Selvagens islands to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, since September 2016. Member of the Review and Advisory Board for the preparation of the Proposal of Major Options for the National Maritime Strategy until 2030 (2023) Chief Editor of REM - Revista de Estudos do Mar. Editor of Academia.edu Editor Program. Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Master´s degree in Law of the Catholic University of Brasília, Brazil. External expert responsible for EQAVET verification processes, from the National Association for Qualification and Vocational Education. I.P., Ministry of Education and Science President and member of the External Assessment Committee of A 3 ES - Higher Education Assessment and Accreditation Agency Member of the International Relations Commission of the Geographical Society of Lisbon https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroquartingraca/

ACADEMIC EDUCATION: Raul Lopes has a degree in Economics from ISEG-UTL and a Master in Urban and Regional Planning from Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. He has a PhD in Economics (Territory) by ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL). FUNCTIONS: Raul Lopes is an Associate Professor at ISCTE-IUL and he was Chairman of the Department of Economics and President of DINAMIA (Research Centre of "excellence"), Scientific Director of the Master in Economics and Public Policy, member of the Scientific Commission of Political Economy, and Coordinator of various curricular units of the 1st and 2nd cycle. AREAS OF EXPERTISE/RESEARCH INTERESTS: Throughout his career he has had teaching duties, consulting and research in the following areas: Economics of the Territory, Innovation and Regional Competitiveness, Strategic Planning, Regional Development Policies and Local Development in Rural Environment, Local Government and Territorial Governance. MAIN PUBLICATIONS: .LOPES, Raul (2015) "Firm performance, innovation modes and territorial embeddedness", with Sérgio Nunes, in European Planning Studies, DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2015.1021666 - LOPES, raul (2014), "O Rural e o Urbano no Brasil", with João F. Rodrigues, in Working Paper do DINAMIA´CET nº2014/02. - LOPES, Raul (2013) "Economic crisis and the firms' innovation process", with Sérgio Nunes, in Working Paper do DINAMIA´CET nº2013/03. - LOPES, Raul (2012) "The importance of External Knowledge in a Firm's Innovation Process", with Sérgio Nunes, in Iréne Bernhard (ed.): Entrepreneurship and Innovation Netwoks, University West, Sweden. - LOPES, Raul. (2001) Competitividade, inovação e territórios. Oeiras, Celta Editora; - LOPES, Raul. (2004) Understanding Peripheral Rural Áreas as Contexts for Economic Development, with João Ferrão, in Lois Labrianidis, ed., The Future of Europe's Rural Peripheries, pp.31-61, Ashgate . - LOPES, Raul (2003) "Zones rurales et capacité entrepreneuriale au Portugal: pratiques, représentations, politiques" -. In "Géographie, Économie, Société", 5 (2003), Edições Elsevier, pp. 139-160. - LOPES, Raul (1990) Planeamento Municipal e Intervenção Autárquica no Desenvolvimento Local, Escher editora. - LOPES, Raul (1991) O Programa ILE em Portugal: avaliação e perspectivas, IEFP (co-authors José Manuel Henriques and A.J. Mendes Baptista).

Sérgio Lagoa is currently an Associated Professor with Habilitation at Iscte. He has taught economics courses at the undergraduate, master, and PhD levels throughout his career at this institution. From 2011 to 2016, he served as co-director of the undergraduate economics program. Since 2015, he has been the director of the Master in Monetary and Financial Economics. He was a member of the scientific commission of Dinâmia’Cet-Iul from 2020 to 2022, and has been member of the board of the Institute for Public and Social Policies (IPPS-Iscte) of Iscte since 2023. Sérgio Lagoa is an integrated researcher at Dinâmia’Cet-Iscte. His main research fields are in monetary and financial economics, with a focus on financial institutions, and also in the labour market.

I am a Researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-Iscte) since 2020 and Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Economy (since 2021) and the School of Applied Digital Technologies (since 2024) at Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon. I hold a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge (2019). My dissertation was awarded the Portuguese Political Science Association Prize for Best Dissertation (2022) and published by Amsterdam University Press as Contesting Austerity: Social Movements and the Left in Portugal and Spain (2022), which received the João Ferreira de Almeida Prize (2024). I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence (2019–2020), and held visiting positions at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2015–2016, 2023), Scuola Normale Superiore (2016), University of York (2022), and University of Florence (2024). In 2023, I was the FLAD Visiting Professor at Brown University. My research focuses on collective action and contemporary politics, particularly social movements, political parties, and their interactions. In my book Contesting Austerity and in my article in European Societies (2025), I examined how processes of backstage partyisation shaped relations between parties and movements during the austerity period in Portugal and Spain. I analyse the processes through which political contention emerges, diffuses, and becomes institutionalised, exploring both the public dimension of protest and its articulation with parties and institutions. I have also studied transnational dynamics and mobilisations around housing, climate action, and anti-austerity politics. Methodologically, I mobilise a range of qualitative and quantitative approaches, from systematic protest event analysis to comparative methods and case studies, as well as I employ computational methods for large-scale data collection and analysis. I have also advanced methodological innovations which extends the idea of backstage by incorporating different forms of involvement and interaction among collective actors. Between 2022 and 2025, I was co-chair of the Research Network on Social Movements of the Council of European Studies and co-organised several international conferences. I am also engaged in public debates and media commentary. My analyses have appeared in Le Monde Diplomatique (Portugal), Expresso, Público, ECO, Le Soir (Belgium), as well as in international outlets such as ECPR The Loop and the LSE EUROPP blog. My work has been published in journals such as European Societies, Environmental Science & Policy, Housing Studies, Review of African Political Economy, Social Movement Studies, Environmental Sociology and Religion, State & Society. I have also contributed to the Oxford Handbook of Climate Action (2025) and the Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Social Movements (2024). You can find more about my work here.