PhD Liliana Fonseca is a Research Associate at the European Policies Research Centre. At EPRC she is project manager for the NICE (Net Zero Industrial Cluster Exchange) network, and has contributed to the H2020 project TRACER on supporting formerly coal-intensive regions in their transition towards more sustainable forms of energy. She has also carried out public policy research for the EoRPA and IQ-Net networks, and the Northern Periphery and Arctic programmes, leading EPRC briefing papers on the Just Transition and the prioritisation of environmental sustainability in Cohesion Policy. Between 2017-2020 she was an Early Stage Research Fellow of the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network RUNIN (The Role of Universities in Innovation and Regional Development), in which she developed her PhD work (University of Aveiro, PT) on universities’ engagement in regional innovation policy like that of Smart Specialisation, through international cross-regional comparative research.
Her previous studies focused on political science, governance, urban and regional sustainability and grassroots initiatives, holding an MSc in Eco-Cities by Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.