Social Affairs

With a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Louvain, Jorge Vala was a Full Professor at ISCTE-IUL and is an Emeritus Researcher at the University of Lisbon ICS. His research initially focused on the learning of violence, then on conflicts between organisational groups, and then on the study of identity and feelings of justice and legitimacy associated with conflicts arising from racism, prejudice and migration.

The eldest son of Olof Palme, former prime minister of Sweden, he is a sociologist and Professor of Political Science at Uppsala University, where he also directs the Centre for Labour Studies. He specialises in social policies from a comparative perspective, with an emphasis on the Swedish pension model, and is also an expert with a solid empirical basis on the social and economic efficiency of public pension systems. He has carried out several studies on the welfare state as an equality strategy, European welfare policies, income redistribution and mixed (public-private) social protection systems, ageing societies, social investment and migration. Responsible for research projects focusing on the effects of the global financial crisis, with a special focus on the political and social relations between European countries, he has participated in various Swedish government commissions and was CEO of the Institute for Futures Studies in Copenhagen. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Chairman of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee "Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy", Chairman of the Migration Studies Delegation (Delmi) and a member of UNRISD (UN Research Institute for Social Development). In 2017, he was appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN to head the Swedish Institute for Social Research, a position he currently holds.

As well as being a technology visionary and a pioneer of «wikis» (a set of web pages designed to allow anyone to contribute and change content), he is best known as the Founder of Wikipedia, an international, free-content Internet encyclopaedia, and of the Wikimedia Foundation. He is also the founder of WikiTribune, a revolutionary ad-free news platform that produces fact-based journalism, and co-founder of Wikia, a free private web hosting service that he created in 2004. His work with Wikipedia, which has become the world's largest encyclopaedia, led to him being named by Time magazine as one of the «100 Most Influential People» in 2006, in the «Scientists and Thinkers» category.

Professor of Economics at Sciences Po University in Paris and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, he holds the Tommaso Padoa Schioppa Chair at the European University Institute in Florence and is an Honorary Mercator Member at Bruegel, the Brussels-based economic think tank. His publications include numerous books and articles on economic policy and European politics. He was Director of Programme and Ideas for Emmanuel Macron's presidential campaign (2017) and Commissioner General for the Strategy of France (2013-16), the government's think tank, while in 2005 he founded the Bruegel Institute, which he directed until 2013.

She has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and believes that the Público was her school of journalism. She spent 14 years in the international politics section exploring, Asia in particular. What does a school for migrant children in Beijing have in common with a middle-class family in Tokyo? A writer in Goa looking for their identity in the largest slum in Mumbai? The lowering the Portuguese flag in Macao and a trip through Thai cuisine? Nothing and a lot. For Francisca Gorjão Henriques, all the reports were lessons on how each place is multiple. She believes that these years helped her in the steps that followed. She left the Público newspaper after 20 years to devote herself to the Loaf by Loaf Association, which promotes the integration of refugees from the Middle East. But she did not leave journalism, continuing to work as a freelancer, reporting and doing fixer work.

French political scientist and academic, as well as Researcher at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). He was Scientific Coordinator of the European network RECWOWE ("Reconciliation, Work and the Welfare State") and is the author of dozens of articles on reforming welfare policies in France and Europe. Director of the Laboratoire Interdisplinaire d'Évaluaton des Politiques Publiques (LIEPP) and Researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), he has also taught at Stockholm University, Harvard University's Center for European Studies and the European University Institute. He is a member of the Executive Board of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), based at the Centre for the Sociology of Organisations (Paris).

Bruno Cardoso Reis holds a PhD in War Studies from King's College and a Master’s degree in Contemporary History from the University of Lisbon School of Arts and Humanities. He was deputy director of the Centre for International Studies at Iscte-IUL, where he teaches and directs the PhD in History and Security and Defence Studies, in partnership with the Military Academy. He was deputy to the Minister of National Defence (2019-2022). He was a guest professor at the Institute of Political Studies at UCP and, in the 2024-25 academic year, he was a FLAD guest professor at Georgetown University in Washington, where he's currently a non-resident researcher. He has published several articles and books, including the essay "Can Portugal have a Strategy?" (2019) published by Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos.

Last updated: september 2025

He has a degree in economics from the ISE, a Master's Degree in Contemporary European Studies and a PhD in Economics from the University of Reading. He was an associate professor at ISEG and worked with the European Commission as Administrator (industrial policy), Deputy Head of Unit (industrial analysis of the textile sector), Head of Unit (employment policy, social protection) and Director (social and employment legislation). He is a consultant on employment, social security and European affairs.

Leads the Foundation's Digital & Social Content Management team.
She coordinated the Digital Area and the Fronteiras XXI project, with a monthly debate program in a partnership with RTP, the national Portuguese television.
Graduated in Social and Cultural Communication from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Joana Ferreira da Costa was a journalist between 1997 and 2016. She worked for 11 years at the daily newspaper «Público» writing about Science, Health Policies and Politics, having been a resident's reporter at Parliament. She then worked as a sub-editor at «Diário de Notícias» and at weekly newspaper «Sol».

Last update: march 2023

She is a writer, teacher, literary critic and communicator. She has worked in the dissemination of Books and Literature in the press and on television for 30 years, at dissemination events and writing workshops and tutoring.
Currently, she is editor of «Ler» magazine, she writes literary criticism in the «Sol» newspaper, coordinates and teaches a post-graduate degree in fiction writing at Universidade Lusófona, she is responsible for the communication of Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos essays and portraits, part of the communication office of ULS Médio Tejo, coordinates the Dom Luis I Foundation programme of International Writing Residences and is on the Cultural Council of the Eça de Queiroz Foundation.
She is the author of the novel «This Is My Body», translated into seven languages, of the reportage book «The Last Sailors» (FFMS) and of a «Sentimental Dictionary of Adultery».

Last updated: May 2024