She holds a PhD in Marine Sciences from the University of Lisbon (co-directed by Duke University, USA) and a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology. She is currently an invited researcher at the Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE) and an invited Assistant Researcher and Professor at the School of Sciences and the Centre for Marine and Environmental Sciences (MARE) at the University of Lisbon. Her research focuses on sustainable marine spatial planning and ocean policy. More recently, she has been carrying out research into ways and solutions for sustainable ocean planning in the face of global climate change. She is the global coordinator of the OCEANPLAN project (funded by FCT), and is very active in international collaborations and networks, such as being an invited expert by the European Commission's Research Executive Agency (REA) and a member of the Ocean Governance for Sustainability Action of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). She is the lead author of scientific articles in prominent journals. Throughout her scientific career, she soon received grants from FLAD-IMAR (Luso-American Development Foundation and Institute of the Sea), FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) to continue to develop her work.