Rita Lopes holds a Ph.D. in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies, a joint program at NOVA University of Lisbon and University of Lisbon (2017), and a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering from NOVA University of Lisbon (2008). She is a researcher at CENSE, Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research at NOVA University of Lisbon, and an Assistant Professor at the Environmental Sciences and Engineering Department at NOVA FCT. Her main research topics range from socio-ecological systems, ecosystem services valuation, circular economy, low carbon economies, well-being economy, green public procurement, climate change adaptation to cities, where she has been developing and applying different collaborative tools and approaches, with a focus on participatory modeling. She has extensive national and international experience in the design and conduction of collaborative processes engaging different stakeholder groups from national, international, and local authorities, businesses, civil society, and research in the co-production of knowledge and sharing of experiences, mainly in these research areas. Rita is the author of several peer-reviewed articles in high-impact factor journals. She is a board member of the European Society of Ecological Economics (ISEE).