Joana is an investigator at the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research IN+, where she manages the Technology Management and Policy Laboratory.
Her research focuses on commercialization processes and on the adoption of new technologies, as well as on the role of human capital in those processes, and her work has been featured in publications such as Research Policy, Small Business Economics and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
She is a co-coordinator for the Masters in Engineering and Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and for the PhD program in Engineering and Public Policy. Additionally, she is a member of the scientific board of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal international partnership since 2014 and has been the scientific coordinator for CEiiA since 2018.
She was an advisor for the Minister of Economics and Innovation in 2016. Between 2013 and 2015, she was a researcher at the IN+, taking part in the IRGC international network, as well as a visiting professor at IST. Between 2010 and 2012, she was a vicedirector at the Portuguese General Directorate for Statistics on Education and Science. In 2009 and 2010, she was an adviser for the Secretary of State of Science, Technology and Higher Education.
She obtained her PhD in Engineering and Industrial Management from IST, University of Lisbon, in 2009. She has a Master's degree in Engineering Policy and Management of Technology from IST and a Bachelor's degree in Technological Chemistry from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.