Dr. João Pedro Gouveia holds a Ph.D. in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies from NOVA School of Science and Technology of NOVA University of Lisbon (FCT-NOVA, PT). He is a Principal Researcher and Integrated Member at the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research (CENSE). At CENSE, he currently manages a team of over 40 persons working on energy efficiency solutions & funding schemes, and energy poverty mitigation. He is the coordinator of the CHANGE - Global Change and Sustainability Institute thematic line on "Promoting a circular and carbon neutral economy". He created and leads the Firefly Energy lab.
He is a lecturer at FCT-NOVA University of Lisbon on climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable urban planning and at ISEC Lisboa - Higher Institute of Education and Sciences. He is one of the founders of Regenerative Intelligence (RegenIntel), a global advisory consultancy based in the US. Dr. Gouveia's expertise extends beyond academia, as he is the principal investigator of multiple national and international projects, policy support studies, and consultancy work on buildings, energy efficiency, energy poverty, sustainable cities, and climate change. His practical application of research is further evidenced by his role in the Coordination team of EPAH - EU Energy Poverty Advisory Hub for DG Energy of the European Commission, and his former position on the Management Committee of EU COST Action on Energy Poverty (ENGAGER) (2017-2022).
He supervises multiple PhD and MSc thesis. He is a recognized international expert in his research area, having an advisory role on 7 EU projects and participating in various academic MSc and PhD juries. João has authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact factor international journals with over 3500 citations (H-index of 26) and has contributed to presentations at over 150 national and international conferences and events, from which he has been an invited speaker/keynote to more than 100.
He is a member of the editorial board of Discover Global Society (Springer Nature), PLOS Climate and an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.
He was a Senior Research Fellow for energy systems at Project Drawdown (USA) (2016-2020), founder and former Board Member of DERA - Drawdown Europe Research Association (2019-2022) and APEEN - Portuguese Association for Energy Economics (2015) where is currently part of the board. Between 2018 and 2021, he was part of the CENSE Management Board, where he was responsible for the cross-cutting area of "Impact on Society and Technology Transfer." He is one of the elected representatives of the Researchers on the Environmental Science and Engineering Department Council at FCT-NOVA (2020-...).
Before his Ph.D., he completed his master's degree in Environmental Engineering from the Faculty of Sciences and Technology at NOVA University of Lisbon, where he also completed his bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering.