Sociologist, associated professor and Head of the Department of Political Science and Public Policy at ISCTE-IUL and researcher at the Center for Research and Studies in Sociology, since 1987. Member of the National Council of Education. Former diretor of the Scientific Journal Sociology, Problems and Practices. The main research themes are policies to combat poverty and social exclusion, social policies, education and training policies, popular cultures, rehabilitation of people with disabilities, and planning and evaluation methodologies. He is the author of books, chapters of books,  articles and other papers (more than one hundred and a half) published in Portugal, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mauritania, Belgium and Angola. He presented communications and lectures in about two hundred scientific meetings in Portugal and abroad. He was Director General of the Department of Studies, Prospects and Planning of the Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity (1998-2001), Director General of the Directorate General of Innovation and Curriculum Development of the Ministry of Education (2006-2008) and President of the Agency For the Qualification (2008-2011). He was a member of the Employment Committee of the European Union. He is an active collaborator of diverse associations, of social, professional and local character.

Has a PhD in Sociology by ISCTE (2015), is a integrated researcher in CIES-IUL since 2020 e invited teacher in the Department of "Métodos de Pesquisa Social" (30%) in ISCTE. Started to work in research in 2008 (in another research centre, CICS.NOVA), and has a vast experience in research projects in the areas of education, public policies, school administration and management, diagnostic studies for strategic planning and models of evaluation of projects/ programs. Besides those areas, her interests include studies about social inclusion and the mobilization and development of multimethod strategies.

Maria José Sousa (PhD in Management, with Aggregation in Management and Public Management), is a lecturer and researcher at ISCTE/University Institute of Lisbon, having been Pro-Rector  between March 2022 and January 2024. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Banco Português de Fomento for Public Policies and a member of the scientific committee of the PhD "in Law and Economics" (Cycle XXXIX), Università degli Studi del Molise. She took a postdoctoral position from 2016-2018, researching the area of digital education, with several publications in journals with a high impact factor (Journal of Business Research, Journal of Grid Computing, Future Generation Computer Systems, and others). She worked as an expert in a European Commission project for the creation of a new category of digital skills to be integrated into the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). She was also a member of the Coordinating Committee of the PhD in Management at the European University, a Senior Researcher at the GEE (Strategy and Studies Office) of the Ministry of Economy Portuguese, responsible for Innovation, Research and Entrepreneurship Policies, and Knowledge and Skills Manager at AMA, IP, Agency for Administrative Modernization (Ministry of the Presidency and the Council of Ministers) and a Project Manager at the Ministry of Labor and Employment, responsible for Innovation Projects and Qualification Assessment and Development Projects. Her research interests are currently in the public policies of Innovation and Research. She is the co-author of more than 100 scientific articles and book chapters (European Planning Studies, Information Systems Frontiers, Systems Research, and Behavioral Science, Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, and others). She is guest editor of more than 5 special editions of Elsevier and Springer. He was President of ISO/TC 260 – Human Resources Management, representing Portugal in ISO - International Organization for Standardization. She has coordinated several European innovation projects (funded by programs such as Erasmus+, Horizon Europe and ICMPD) and is also an External Expert of COST Association - European Cooperation in Science and Technology.