Susana da Cruz Martins, PhD in Sociology. She is an associate professor at Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and a researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES) in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy. She is co-coordinator of the Education and Science Research Group at CIES-Iscte. She is a member of the Inequalities Observatory and Director of the Master's Degree in School Administration (at ESPP, Iscte). She was awarded a post-doctoral scholarship by the Foundation for Science and Technology and a Gulbenkian Professorship by the F. C. Gulbenkian. She has participated in and coordinated national and international research projects. Of particular note is the national coordination (in Portugal) of the European project EUROSTUDENT - Social and Economic Conditions of Student Life In Europe (II, III, VI, and VII) and the Portuguese external evaluation of the Global Schools2030 Programme (in Portugal), implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation. She is the author of several national and international publications, mainly in the areas of education and higher education policies, comparative education systems, school performance and success, evaluation of public policies and social inequalities.

PhD in Sociology from Iscte- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte-IUL) in 2023. I studied the political appropriation of the notion of resilience and its role in transforming the European social model in the aftermath of the 2007/8 financial crisis and the global pandemic crisis in 2020, presenting a dissertation with the title: Everything is not gonna be alright: contributions to a critical perspective on social resilience. Graduated in Sociology in 2004 and finished a Master in Urban Studies in 2010, in both cases from Iscte-IUL. I am currently an integrated researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (Cies-IUL), integrating the line of research “Inequalities, Work and Well Being”, and guest assistant professor at Iscte-IUL, integrated in the Department of Political Science and Policies Public (ESPP). I am a researcher in studies in the areas of poverty and social inequalities, social protection, employment, and education, with an emphasis on evaluating policies aimed at reducing poverty and increasing the qualifications of disadvantaged social groups. I am co-author of articles in national and international publications, such as: “Labor relations under hardship in Europe: contributions for social resilience theory” (2023), “Fighting poverty in times of crisis in Europe: Is resilience a hidden resource for social policy?” (2022), “Welfare State Development in Portugal: From “Stage Zero” to the Post-Crisis “Leftist” Compromise against Austerity” (2019), “Crisis and Poverty in Portugal: resilience or social protection?” (2018), “Resilience: Moving from a “heroic” notion to a sociological concept” (2017), among others. My main research interests are: poverty, social inequalities and resilience; public policies; economic sociology and political economy; and education.

Gabriel Cipriano is an Invited Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Research Methods at Iscte - University Institute of Lisbon, and a researcher at CIES-Iscte (Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology). With a PhD in Policies of School Administration and Management, his main research interests focus on evaluation theories, assessment of learning, research methods and techniques, research data management, evaluation of public policies in education, school administration, and school commuting.

  João Sebastião, sociologist, PhD in Sociology. Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Policies at ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon and researcher at the Center for Research and Studies in Sociology-IUL (CIES-IUL), where he was director between 2014 and 2020. His main research areas are social inequalities in education, educational policies and school violence. In convergence with the research in sociology of education worked as expert in the area of school violence for different national and international institutions (OECD, EU, Council of Europe; or as developer and Coordinator of the School Safety Observatory of the Portuguese Ministry of Education, among others). At CIES maintains a line of work of applied science on programs about school success and early school leaving, class dimension, school violence and municipal educational plans, cooperating with schools, local authorities or NGOs.  

  PhD in Sociology. Full Professor at ISCTE, where she has taught since 1993. She is currently a member of the Department of Social Research Methods at the School of Sociology and Public Policy and a researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-Iscte). Her main areas of research have been: education and adult education; competences, literacy and reading practices; science and society; and research methodologies in the social sciences. She has coordinated and been part of several research projects funded by national and international agencies, private and public organisations. She is the author and co-author of several scientific publications including books, book chapters and articles in indexed journals. She has extensive teaching experience, having coordinated and taught courses in undergraduate, postgraduate, master's and doctoral programmes in the fields of sociology and data analysis in the social sciences.  She is currently the Director of Iscte's Doctoral Programme in Sociology, coordinator of the CIES ‘Education and Science’ Research Group, a member of Iscte's General Council, a member of the National Education Council, where she coordinates the Specialised Commission on ‘Democratisation and Educational Inequalities’, and a member of the Higher Statistics Council, where she chairs the Standing Section on Social Statistics.      

PEDRO VIDEIRA has a Phd in Sociology at ISCTE-IUL and is a researcher at CIES-Iscte (Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia do Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa). His primary research interests focus on higher education policies, particularly graduates’ employability and employment outcomes. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on these topics and has participated in several projects related to them. Among his most recent contributions, he was a member of the Portuguese team for the EuroGraduate and the Next-UP projects, funded by the European Commission. He has been involved in several projects monitoring public policies in the scientific and higher education systems in Portugal and international settings, funded by both public and private entities.

PhD in Public Policy and Master in Education. Coordinating professor of definitive appointment of the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, to which he presided from 1996 to 2005. At the Higher School of Education of the same Institute, he has been in charge of scientific and pedagogical direction and coordination for several years. He has also held teaching positions at ISCTE-IUL since 2012, where he is a researcher at the Center for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES), and has been teaching at the Portuguese Catholic University for some years. He was a permanent member of the Scientific and Pedagogical Council of Continuing Teacher Training from 1996 to 2003. He was Secretary of State for Education from 2005 to 2009 and Secretary of State for Employment and Vocational Training from 2009 to 2011, respectively from the XVII and XVIII Constitutional Governments.