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/

Cátia Miriam Costa is a researcher in the Centre for International Studies (CEI-IUL) and an invited Assistant Professor at Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. She holds the Chair of “Global IberoAmerica” at the European Institute of International Studies (EIIS). Cátia also collaborates with the official think tank of the Ministry of Defence of the Portuguese Republic in the capacity of Invited Lecturer and Thesis Supervisor. She is also the alternate ISCTE representative in the  RTC-Portugal (consortium of Universities) - OceanTeacher Global Academy. She is the General Coordinator of SBS4MED, an EU-funded Erasmus+ project promoting transformation through sport in the Mediterranean region, with a focus on skilling and entrepreneurship. She is also the Portuguese Team Coordinator at ESTEEM, an EU-funded Erasmus+ project promoting the development of management capabilities in very small enterprises. She is a member of COOPMAR (network supported by CYTED - The Iberian-American Program of Science and Technology for Development), which focuses on transatlantic cooperation, public policy, and Iberian-American sociocultural communities. She is a member of CHERN - China in Europe Research Network COST Action. Her research has focused on inter-continental exchange phenomena (printed press, port cities, etc.), organizational innovations (think tanks, informational movements, etc.), ocean governance and globalisation. She has engaged extensively in knowledge transfer activities, including in the fields of real estate consultancy (sustainable planning), the third sector (project management), training (marketing management), and media activities (regular TV, newspapers, and radio appearances). Her current research agenda is driven toward the relationship between technology, the circulation of ideas, and international communication. Specializing in discourse analysis, she has studied deeply a set of non-European territories: the African, American, Asian cases both in a colonial and post-colonial context, the proto-nationalist and nationalist movements, and their relations with the former colonisers. She is also specifically interested in the construction of national discourses for the international sphere, and in the different perspectives on globalisation. She has supervised Masters’s theses in a variety of programs at five major Portuguese academic institutions: ISCTE-IUL, ISEG-UL, ISCSP-UL, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, and the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Porto. Outside Portugal, she supervises Doctoral projects at the City University of Macau, China. She was an advisor to the Secretary of State of Internationalisation (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in the XXII Government of the Portuguese Republic. Her key responsibilities had to do with) high-level bilateral commissions, ii) trade policy and investment protection agreements, and iii) the diplomatic process of goods and services certification. Additionally, she was the liaison with a number of major policy initiatives in the domains of energy transition, digital transformation, and international seaport logistics. During her time in government, she undertook special strategic initiatives with a number of relevant markets (India, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea) and she had to deal with a number of significant crises (the Pandemic impact in 2020, the Evergrande bottleneck in 2021, and Russo-Ukraine War in 2022). She has cooperated with several research centres and networks in the areas of the social and political sciences. At the international level: CEIBA (centre for research on culture and development, Catalonia, Spain); “Ars, cultura Y Desarrollo” (organization for the register of orality, Valence, Spain), Kairos-Chairo (program Ibero-american of communities, languages and sustainable development), The Human Geography Research Group (Aberdeen University), “Appearance Matters” COST Action network (supported by the European Science Foundation), and “OceanGov” COST Action network (Ocean Governance for Sustainability – Challenges, Options and the Role of Science). At the Portuguese level: IICT (Tropical Research Institute), Centre of Iberian Studies, Centre of Peoples and Cultures Research  (Catholic University of Lisbon), International Institute Casa de Mateus (Higher Education network), CHAM (Centre for Global History, University of Lisbon), CEsA (Centre for African and Asian Studies, University of Lisbon). She has been involved in the organisation of international conferences and congresses in different scientific areas. She has developed intensive teaching and training activities in Portugal and abroad in the context of several institutions: the European Foundation Centre, Asociación del profesorado de Portugués de Extemadura, INA (National Institute for Public Administration), the Portuguese Ministry of Justice, the Portuguese Supreme Audit Authority (Tribunal de Contas), SGS Portugal, ISCEM, among others. She carried out managerial duties and performed expert functions in broad array of organisations. In the third sector: as a programme officer and projects manager she has developed educational projects for disadvantaged communities, and she also organised cultural events, developed sustainability interventions, etc., for different organisations including Fundação Oriente (Portugal) Institut Catalunya África (Spain), CaixaForum (Spain), Instituto Universitario de Desarrollo y Cooperación de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), the NGO CRIAR-T (Portugal), and OBERCOM (Communication Observatory) (Portugal). In the public sector she has worked directly with several entities: Institute Franco-Portugais, EGEAC (organization governing the cultural infrastructure in Lisbon), Municipality of Lisbon, Municipality of Setúbal, the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture and Sea, and the Institute of Management of Citizens Shops. In the private sector: she has engaged with corporate actors such as INCM, CCIPD, and COTEC Portugal. She has been a commentator for the mainstream media in the field of political science and international relations. She has featured in RTP3, SIC Notícias, TVI24, and Económico TV. She has been a columnist in the newspaper O Jornal Económico since its foundation in 2016 (previously she wrote for OJE between 2014 and 2016). She wrote invited pieces for the magazines Macau (Portuguese language) and Macao (English Language).

Cristina Sousa is Associate Professor at ISCTE/IUL. She has a Master's degree in Economics and Management of Science and Technology and a PhD in Economics, both from ISEG/UTL. Her research interests include innovation, creation and circulation of knowledge and entrepreneurship. Currently, her research is focused on networks, on entrepreneurship in knowledge-intensive sectors and on the transition to a sustainable energy system. The results of her research were object of publication in academic journal and books and were presented in several national and international conferences and workshops.

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 and deputy director of DINÂMIA'CET. 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.

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.

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.

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).

Vítor Hugo Santos Ferreira received his PhD in 2010 from the University of Lisbon (ISEG) in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, focusing on the dynamics of regional innovation and catching-up. He has a Master's degree in Economics and Management of Science, Technology and Innovation from the University of Lisbon (ISEG) (2006) and developed his Master's thesis on the "Moulds Sector in Portugal Vs China: Strategies, Skills and Innovation". He is a professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria since 2002, where he teaches Advanced Strategy, Innovation Management, Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation, Knowledge Management, Games Markets and Multimedia UCs.  Between 2012 and 2014 he was Coordinator of the Master of Management Control and is a member of the scientific committee of the International Business Master of IPLeiria since 2014. Over the years he has collaborated with some European business schools in Finland, the Netherlands, Hungary and France and is a visiting professor at the University of Feevale and Coimbra Business School. He has supervised more than 20 entrepreneurial projects and guided 30 Master's dissertations in the areas of Strategy, Innovation, International Business and Knowledge Management.  He was responsible for the creation of the "entrepreneurial engineering" award. He is a trainer in the area of entrepreneurship in programmes linked to Poliempreende. Since 2013 he has developed extensive work in Supporting the business sector, in the study of entrepreneurship phenomena and in the implementation of investment projects in higher education/industry (QREN, P2020, Framework Programme). He is a researcher and member of the scientific council of the Centre for the Rapid and Sustainable Development of Products (CDRsp), a research unit of IPLeiria. He was co-responsible for several important studies, such as the "comparison of the Portuguese mould industry with the Chinese one", the "Assessment of the education needs of the Leria Region", the "assessment of a hydrogen-based industry in South Africa" and the "Internal Pine Forest Region as a System of Innovation". He is the author of many published scientific papers, Chair of GBATA (Global Business and Technology Association) and of the European Conference on Knowledege Management and reviewer in many conferences and different journals.  He has worked as a consultant on entrepreneurship and innovation projects for many business associations (Nerlei, Aciso, Airo), where he has also worked as a trainer for entrepreneurs and executives. He was a founding partner of the start-up Look an Go. Since 2013 he has been Executive Director of D.Dinis Business School, responsible for the management and strategy of this entity. He is responsible for the scientific and teaching courses in Entrepreneurship, the Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation Management, the General Management Program (in partnership with ISCTE), the Mini-MBA and the Management course for SMEs. He is a guest columnist for "Jornal de Leiria" and "o Molde" magazine. He is a founding member of the Eurafitar Innovation Association and a founding member of the accelerator StartUp Leiria. He has been a guest speaker at more than 20 events in the last 3 years and organizer of several national and international conferences.