ABOUT

Director of Department Information Society at the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), I.P., Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and in Portugal, since 1st of March 2012.  

From 1st September 2008 to 29 February 2012, she was Head of International Affairs at the UMIC-Knowledge Society Agency, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education in Portugal, the Portuguese Public Agency with the mission of coordinating Information Society policy and its mobilization. UMIC was merged with FCT on 1st March 2012.

Ana is the Portuguese delegate in several working parties related to Information Society, Research & Innovation, OECD , United Nations , ITU  and at the GAC  at ICANN . She was appointed in March 2013 to the Meeting Strategy Working Group at ICANN.  As delegate to the GAC, she seats at the Consultative Council of DNS.PT (the PT ccTLD).

At European Union’s (EU) level, Ana is the Portuguese delegate to the CEF (Connecting European Facility) Telecom Expert Group, to the Preparatory Group of the High Level Group on A Digital Agenda for Europe (HLG DAE), to the High Level Group on Internet Governance. She also prepares the Portuguese positions to the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council configuration (TTE), namely to the Telecommunications (Information Society) component, through the Working Group on Telecommunications/Information Society. She was part of the organized, together with the European Commission, the biggest ICT event in the EU calendar – “ICT 2015 - Innovate, Connect, Transform”, held in Lisbon, on 20-22 October 2015.

Ana was also appointed by the European Commission to the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5 ‘Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials’ Advisory Group in September 2013.

She covers all the follow-up of the World Summit on the Information Society and participates in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on behalf of the Portuguese Government. She was appointed in April 2012 Member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the IGF. She was a governmental representative to the Working Group on IGF Improvements at the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD). At the ITU she serves to the ITU Council Working Group on International Internet-related public policy issues and to the “WSIS+10 High-Level Event: Open Consultation Process Multistakeholder Preparatory Platform”. 

She has been closely involved in the organization of the yearly EuroDIG (European IGF Initiative) since its inception, she is its co-founder and is the co-organizer of the Portuguese IGF Initiative. 

Ana is member of ISOC Chapter Portugal and member of its Board of Auditors.

From 2002-2008 she was the Senior Counselor responsible for Science and Technology, Information Society, Space and Education at the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the EU in Brussels. During that time, she negotiated the European Union’s 6th and the 7th Framework-Programmes for Research, Technology and Development and the European Action Plan for Space. She negotiated the first Action Plan for the Information Society in Europe – the eEurope 2002, the eEurope 2005, the Initiative i2010–European Information Society 2010 and she is now fully engaged at A Digital Agenda for Europe and to the upcoming Digital Single Market (DSM). 

She was the Senior Advisor on International Affairs to the Minister of Science and Technology (who was responsible for the national coordination of Information Society Policy as well) from 1997-2002. During that time she was involved with the Mission Unit that developed and then launched one of the first national innovative action plans on Information Society Policy at worldwide level, the Green Paper on the Information Society in Portugal (Livro Verde para a Sociedade da Informação em Portugal), in 1997. 

Joined the Public Administration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September 1991. 

She is currently completing her PhD Dissertation in European Studies – Public Policies at the Universidade Católica in Lisbon. Her dissertation is on “The European Union and the management of global resources – The case of the Internet”.