Speakers

She has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence (AI) from the University of Minho, a Master's degree in Information Management and a degree in Applied Mathematics, both from the University of Porto. She is Principal Coordinating Professor at the Higher Institute of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ISEP/IPP) and President of the Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence (APPIA).

Helena Freitas

University of Coimbra (U. Coimbra)

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Full Professor of Biodiversity and Ecology at the University of Coimbra, coordinator of the Centre for Functional Ecology and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Biodiversity and Conservation for Sustainable Development. She represents Portugal on the IPBES Platform and is a member of the International Committee of the schedule UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (ICC-MaB). Chairs the Advisory Board of the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD Portugal) and manages Serralves Park.

Helena Machado

CIES/ISCTE-IUL

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Invited Coordinating Researcher at CIES - Center for Research and Studies in Sociology, she is the Principal Investigator of the fAIces project - Facial Recognition Technologies: Ethno-Assemblages and Alternative Futures, funded by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). She has a PhD in Sociology and conducts research in the areas of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Critical Studies of Artificial Intelligence.

Henrique Miguel Pereira

CIBIO - University of Porto

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President of the Biodiversity Chair of the Infrastructures of Portugal and Professor of Biodiversity Conservation at iDiv - German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Halle-Jena-Leipzig. He was a lead author of the Global Biodiversity Outlook 4, is the Chair of the Biodiversity Observation Network of the Group on Earth Observations, and one of the Coordinating Lead Authors of the IPBES Scenario Assessment.

Hugo Penedones

Inductive

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Co-founder and CTO of Inductiva Research Labs, where he leads the development of an API-first platform for large-scale scientific computing. Previously, he was a researcher at DeepMind, where he was part of the founding team of AlphaFold, one of the greatest advances in computational biology in recent decades.

Joana Gaspar de Freitas

University of Lisbon (U. Lisboa)

Session:

The Future of European Competitiveness

Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts of Lisbon. Deputy Director of the History Center of the University of Lisbon. PhD in Contemporary History from the University of Lisbon, her research focuses on environmental history, with an emphasis on coastal areas, combining History, Anthropology, Geology, Geography and Spatial Planning to understand the impacts of climate change, extreme events, risks, vulnerabilities, resilience and adaptation strategies of coastal communities.

Joana Resende

University of Porto

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Vice-Rector of the University of Porto for Strategic Planning, Knowledge Development and Entrepreneurship. Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics, she chairs UPTEC and coordinates the European Alliance for Global Health locally. She is a member of the General Council of INESC TEC and a researcher in the areas of industrial organization and digital economy. She holds a PhD from the Université Catholique de Louvain and the University of Porto and leads projects funded by the FCT and the European Commission.

João Maciel

General Manager of EDP's New Energy Technologies Center

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He has a degree in Electrical Engineering - Energy Systems from the University of Lisbon, an MBA from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and advanced management studies from the London Business School. He was previously Director of Technological Development at EDP Inovação and a member of the Board of Directors of other EDP R&D initiatives, namely the WindFloat Project. He has 20 years' experience working in the energy sector.

João Magalhães

New University of Lisbon

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Professor at NOVA FCT and principal researcher at NOVA LINCS, with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a PhD from Imperial College London. He focuses on multimodal artificial intelligence, with notable international collaborations, including projects with Carnegie Mellon, Amazon, Google or the Portuguese Army. He also co-directs the CMU-Portugal schedule .

Luís Almeida

CNC, University of Coimbra

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Associate Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Coimbra. At the same university, he coordinates the CIBB - Center for Innovation in Biomedicine and Biotechnology, as well as the CNC - Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology and GeneT - Center of Excellence in Gene Therapy in Portugal. He has been working in the field of gene therapy in brain diseases since 1998, particularly in Machado-Joseph disease.

Marc Lemaitre

European Commission

Website

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Born in Luxembourg, he has been Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) since February 2023. From 2016 to 2023, he was Director-General of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). With extensive experience in European affairs, he joined the European Commission in 2007 as Head of Cabinet of the Commissioners responsible for Regional Policy and later for the Budget.

Marco Manso

Particle-Summary

Session:

The Future of European Competitiveness

Founder and Innovation Director of PARTICLE SUMMARY Lda. and EDGENEERING Lda., he participates in various research activities aimed at generating innovative products and services for the global market, for applications in Health, Security and Defense. He has a degree in Electronic and Computer Sciences from the Technical University of Lisbon and a Master's degree in Information Warfare/Competitive Intelligence from the Portuguese Military Academy.

Maria João Carioca

GALP

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Co CEO and CFO of Galp since April 2025, accumulating executive leadership until 2026. With a degree in Economics from Nova SBE and an MBA from INSEAD, she has accumulated executive training at Harvard, MIT and Columbia. She started at McKinsey (1993), worked at SIBS, Unicre and CGD, and chaired Euronext Lisboa (2016-2017).

Mário Figueiredo

Instituto Superior Técnico

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A full professor and specialist in machine learning, image processing and optimization, he has received several international awards and is Venture Partner and Chief Scientist at Faber. He coordinates research projects with a high scientific and technological impact.

Monica Bettencourt-Dias

Gulbenkian Institute of Molecular Medicine (GIMM)

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Keynote Lecture - Portuguese Scientific Innovation at the International Level: From Research to Application

Principal Investigator at GIMM, she was Director of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência between 2018 and 2023. She holds a PhD from University College London, with a postdoctoral degree from Cambridge, is a member of EMBO, Chair of the EMBO Science Policy Committee and Coordinator of the FCT Scientific Council for Life Sciences and Health. She has received honors such as the Pfizer Prize, the Eppendorf Young Investigator Award and the Keith Porter Fellowship from ASCB.

Nuno Prego Ramos

Valvian

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Founder and CEO of Valvian, a Portuguese biotechnology company committed to prioritizing the treatment of people already suffering from diseases of aging, such as cancer. Co-founder and CEO of CellmAbs, a biotech spin-off from NOVA University dedicated to the creation of personalized immunotherapies for oncology. With a diverse background in Biochemistry, Law and Marketing Management, he has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Paulo Dimas

Center for Responsible AI

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Vice President of Innovation at Unbabel, Paulo Dimas is a successful entrepreneur, contributing to the development of the world's first Language Operations platform that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence. He is also CEO of the Center for Responsible AI, a consortium led by Unbabel with the mission of creating the next generation of responsible AI products based on the principles and technologies of responsible AI.

Salomé White

Deputy general coordinator of FCCN, FCT's digital services unit

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