Speakers' Profiles

Ana Maria Barata

Degree in Agronomy from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (Lisbon) and a Master's degree in the same area, held at the University of Missouri, USA. Responsible for the Banco Português de Germoplasma Vegetal (BPGV), the national Genebank for the conservation of plant genetic resources in Portugal, since 1998. Chair of the Working Group on Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, of the European Cooperative Program Genetic Resources (ECPGR) and Member of the International Advisory Board of Svalbard Seed Vault..

André Azeiteiro

André Azeiteiro has a degree in Biology from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra.
He has been a high school teacher for 25 years and has always promoted school projects, with students and partners, in the area of health, environmental education and sustainability.
In recent years he has been responsible for the Education Strategy for Citizenship at School, seeking to develop diverse skills for the exercise of active, solidary and democratic citizenship.

André and Sofia

Sofia and André are two siblings who, from a very early age, showed great concern about the climate and ecological crisis. In 2017, they witnessed the tragedy of the brutal fires in July and October, and an alarm sounded that made them want to act. Through the support of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), and along with 4 other young people, they created the #Youth4ClimateJustice case. The case was being developed and, in 2020, a complaint was formalized against 33 European governments in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), for considering that they are not doing enough to guarantee the human rights of the new generations before the threat of climate change.

Alberto Acedo

Dr. Alberto Acedo is a self-described genomic dreamer, DNA passionate, global biotech entrepreneur, and scientific soul of Biome Makers ‘technology. He holds a PhD in Genetic Medicine and Biomedical Applications, specializing in NGS sequencing and machine learning. Alberto is a TEDx speaker, European Commission Expert, and GLOSOLAN (FAO) member. He is recognized as a young AgTech visionary by MIT Technology Review and AgFunder among others.

Betina Madsen

Betina Bergmann Madsen is chief procurement officer in Copenhagen Municipality and a specialist in the procurement of sustainable and organic food for the municipality’s 900 kitchens. Since 2001 Copenhagen has had a goal of reaching 90 % organic in all public catering within the city, and expect to achieve the goal within 2016, naturally the tenders and food supply need to support this objective, which to our knowledge is the most ambitious in all the capitals of the world.

Carlos Silva

Executive President of Proruris – Empresa Municipal de Desenvolvimento Rural de Vinhais, since 2013; Vice-Presidente of Centro Nacional de Competências dos Frutos Secos, since 2022; Presidente of the Board of Cooperativa dos Agricultores de Vinhais, since 2009; President of the Board of Organização de Produtores Pecuários do Concelho de Vinhais, since 2018. Has a Masters degree in Public Management by  IPB-ESTIG, a post-graduate degree in Hygiene and Safety at Work by ISLA and a Bachelor's degree in Zootechnical Engineering  by IPB-ESA. Carlos has been developing his professional carreer as a technicial and a manager in the public and private sector, mainly dedicated to rural development, nuts and livestock. 

Isabel Carvalhais

Isabel Carvalhais is Member of the European Parliament and Associate Professor of the University of Minho in Portugal where she is Professor in the areas of Politics, Democracy and Citizenship Studies. She is also a senior member of the Centre of Research in Political Science (CICP) in the same university. She is full member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, of the Committee on Fisheries, of the ANIT Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport, and of the D-US Delegation for relations with the United States. 

Katie Wilson

Dr. Wilson has a passion for child nutrition and has dedicated her career to improving access to healthy food for all children and their families. She has spent 23 years as a school nutrition director, 5 years as the Executive Director for the Institute of Child Nutrition, 2 years as the Deputy Under Secretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services at the United States Department of Agriculture, appointed by President Obama and is presently the Executive Director of the Urban School Food Alliance.  She also served on the 31st Standing Committee on Nutrition at the U.N. and is on the Board of Directors for the group Eating City.  

Luis Suarez-Llanos

Industrial Engineer who shifted his professional path towards Landscape and Permaculture Design. Interested in whole systems design and ecosystem restoration through regenerative land management practices. Currently working at Life Terra Foundation, implementing reforestation and agroforestry projects in the Iberian Peninsula.

Manuela Pintado

​B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (1991) and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP) in 1999. She is Associate Professor, Director of CBQF – State Associate Laboratory and Associate Director of the College of Biotechnology of UCP. She is the leader of the Biobased and Biomedical products group and coordinates the Bioactives and Bioproducts Research Laboratory. During her scientific trajectory, she published more than 430 papers in refereed international journals and authored 55 chapters in handbooks on these topics, and the creator of 20 patents.

Mário Ramos

Graduated in Cooking and Pastry (1995-1998) at the Lisbon Hotel and Tourism School; Graduated in Hotel Management (2014), Postgraduate in Innovation and Quality in Food Production (2015) and Specialist in Restaurant and Hospitality (2015). He worked in the kitchens of Altis Park, Lisboa Plaza, Restaurante H20 at Expo'98, the Ritz, Dom Pedro, Pestana Palace, the Association of Professional Cooks of Portugal, Helana Restaurant, and headed the kitchens of the Hotel Group in Monfortinho hot springs for 10 years.

Miguel Gomez

Miguel Ángel Gómez Tenorio is an Agricultural Engineer, member of the research group “Plant Production in Mediterranean Cropping Systems' ' of the University of Almeria. He is an expert in sustainable soil management and microbiology and a technical advisor for woody and horticultural crop farms. He comes from a family of farmers and stock breeders, currently managing his own farm in the province of Granada. He is also responsible for Regenerative Agriculture in Alvelal Association carrying out the implementation of regenerative techniques with more than 200 producers in woody crops, mainly almond, olive, and pistachio.

Nils Borchard

Nils Borchard is the Head of Research and Innovation at the German Agricultural Society e.V. (DLG) in Frankfurt am Main / Germany. He has extensive experience in building up innovative research and development projects covering a wide range of topics of the agri- food sector. A recently won Horizon Europe project “Advanced biodiversity monitoring for results-based and effective agricultural policy and transformation” starting in December.

2022 will develop and validate innovative methods to monitor biodiversity of agro- ecosystems. He has a PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Bonn, Germany.

Philip Fernandez

Philip Fernandez is currently the Agriculture Project Manager at EIT Food where he is working on an ambitious project to help European farmers transition to regenerative agriculture and raise awareness among consumers about the environmental and health benefits of sustainably produced food.Prior to joining EIT Food, he founded and then managed a company that exported organic produce from Spain to Northern Europe and which later developed into the largest organic food home delivery service in Madrid.

Rita Silva

Ana Rita Silva works in the valorisation and management of by-products in the collaborative laboratory Food4Sustainability. She has a master’s degree in Microbiology and a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Aveiro. Throughout her career she has been involved in several projects, but the one targeting the food waste problem was without a doubt, the most exciting experience. At Food4Sustainability she is also very involved in the Academy, the knowledge platform. She believes that science should be for everyone, and thus sharing and communicating science is essential for our society.

Sara Moreno

Sara Moreno Pires is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Aveiro and Researcher at the Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy Research Unit (GOVCOPP) of the same University. She has a PhD in Applied Environmental Sciences from the University of Aveiro, a master’s in Development and Planning from the University College London and a degree in Economics from the University of Coimbra. She is currently the Executive Director of the International Non-Governmental Organization, Common House of Humanity, and scientific coordinator of the project "Ecological Footprint of Portuguese Municipalities". 

Salvatore Basile

Salvatore Basile is an Agronomist, trainer, coordinator and designer of interventions on agri-environmental issues, with particular regard to Bio-Districts and agroecology. He is the president of I.N.N.E.R. – International Network of Eco-Regions, Co-President of GAOD – Global Alliance for the Organic Districts and the General Secretary of the Cilento Bio-District in Italy.

Sílvia Moreira

Sílvia Moreira is currently a by-product valorization & management specialist at Food4Sustainability CoLAB, with great will to learn and help in several areas, such as the F4S Academy and F4S Communication team. She finished her PhD in Food Science and Technology and Nutrition at University of Aveiro, Minho and Catholic University of Portugal, financed by FCT (Portugal) in February 2020. She has also completed her MSc in Food Biotechnology (2014), and her BSc in Biotechnology (2012) at University of Aveiro.

Tiago Lourenço

Tiago Lourenço is a self-taught organic olive oil producer. Co-owner of the company Real Idanha, manages 195 ha of land in the Bioregion of Idanha-a-Nova (Portugal). The regeneration of the traditional olive groves as an important agricultural heritage is the main focus of this project.

Inês Morais

Maria Inês Morais, born in Torres Vedras, has a degree in Food Engineering with a Post-Graduation in Quality Management and Food Safety, in 2005 she started the professional path as head of the Quality Department in the industry feed. She has 14 years of experience as a Senior Technician in Food Safety in the area of ​​management of school cafeterias, starting activity in 2009 at the Municipality of Oeiras.
At the Municipality of Torres Vedras, Inês is currently one of the senior technicians responsible for the Food and School Health Area at Education Division of the Municipality of Torres Vedras.

Carla Gomes

Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), where has collaborated in several research projects, especially in the area of ​​adaptation to climate change. Graduated in Social Communication (Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal), Master in Management and Environmental Policies (University of Aveiro) and PhD in International Development (University of East Anglia, UK) and in Climate Change and Policy Sustainable Development (University of Lisbon). She is responsible for the Society, Governance and Policies area of ​​the H2020 B- WaterSmart.

Angelica Pianegonda

Angelica Pianegonda is an architect and engineer and currently is a PhD Student at the University of Trento (Department of Civil Environmental and Mechanical Engineering) where she also graduated in Building Engineer and Architecture (2019). She has been Research Fellow (2019-2021) in the same Department, working on the European project EIT Climate-KIC SATURN (2019-2021). She attended the 1st level International Master "Food City Design" at the University of Parma, collaborating with Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente as part of her thesis project (2021). In 2020 she was the coordinator of the “Nutrire Trento #fase2” project and of the European Solidarity Corps “Controcorrente” project. 

Michele Urbani

Michele Urbani is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Trento (Italy). He has been working on research projects concerning workforce routing optimization and facility location. Such projects aim to improve the delivery of services and goods to customers that are geographically distributed and to develop artificial intelligence algorithms to yield robust solutions. He recently started to work on the facility location problem for the location of food hubs within the project HelpFood 4.0. Michele obtained his Ph.D. (2021) from the University of Trento (Italy) and the Lappeenranta-Lahti University (Finland), and his master's (2018) and bachelor's (2015) degrees from the University of Trento.

Maria Canelhas

With a background in sociology, Maria has been working on projects that focus mainly on community empowerment to overcome environmental, social or economic problems. For 8 years she worked in Fruta Feia (Ugly Fruit), a consumer’s cooperative that brings together farmers and consumers to fight food waste due to appearance upstream the food chain in Portugal. Currently based in Bilbao, she is working with EIT Food as programme manager, focusing mainly on projects aiming to boost the innovation capacity of the agrifood sector in Southern Europe’s RIS countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece).