Estela Costa is an associate professor at the Institute of Education, University of Lisbon (IE-ULisboa). She holds a PhD in Educational Administration and Policy (IE-ULisboa) and an M.Ed. from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon (FC-UL). She graduated from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, New University of Lisbon, with a Modern Languages and Literature degree. She also owns a graduate specialization in Administration and School Organization from the FC-UL. She has been deputy director of the IE-ULisboa since 2012 and a researcher at the IE-ULisboa R&D Unit ‘Education and Training Research and Development Unit’ (UIDEF) - ‘Research Group of Politics of Education and Training’. Since 2012, she has coordinated the IE-ULisboa external consulting team of ‘Educational Territories of Priority Intervention schools’ (TEIP) in partnership with the Ministry of Education (ME), a program created in the late 90s to support economically and socially disadvantaged schools to reduce early school leaving and absenteeism, indiscipline, and promote educational success. She integrated the ‘More School Success’ Project team, coordinated by the ME (2009-2013). She coordinates ‘Redescola’ (School-network), a network of professionals in the area of education (teachers, school principals, teacher training centers, municipalities, etc.) and researchers to promote research-informed debate and nurture the mutual exchange of experiences and develop research projects and partnerships based on shared interests. She coordinates the master's in school management and administration (a prerequisite for being a school principal in Portugal) and teaches graduate and postgraduate courses, in the Educational Administration and Policy area of expertise. In 2012, she taught a Master's in Luanda - Angola; and in 2015, she taught a doctoral course, in partnership with the Macao Polytechnic Institute - China. She supervises doctoral thesis and master dissertations in Educational Sciences (some in Angola and Macao). She has trained teachers, school principals (Portugal, Angola, France), and inspectors of Education (Portugal, France, Guiné-Bissau, Turkey). She has participated in and conducted evaluation studies on political programs, such as, ‘Early Bilingual Teaching Project’ (2014); 'The Pilot Project for Pedagogical Innovation (2019), and conducted consultancy activities in Portugal and abroad (e.g., as an external evaluator at the Marino Institute of Education/Trinity College, Dublin – Ireland, in 2019). She participated in the Peer Learning Activities of the ET 2020 Working Group on Schools (European Union). She is the Portuguese national expert at the European Commission Independent Experts in Education and Training. She took part/coordinated the IE-ULisboa team in the following European projects: KNOWandPOL, EU (6th Framework, Priority 7) (2011-2006); The Outstanding New Teacher program (ONTP), Erasmus+ KA2 (2014-2017); New Approaches in Inspection: A Polycentric Model. Erasmus+ KA2 (2019-2022); LOOP – Erasmus + K3 (2021-2024); DIGI ESSA 4Schools. Erasmus+ K2 (2022-2024); Bridge Project. Erasmus +, KA220-HED (2023-2025). She develops her research activities in the field of Educational Administration and Policy. Her research interests are focused on educational policy and educational governance, school management and leadership, school evaluation, PISA, and international large-scale assessments. She has several works published in Portugal and abroad on these subjects.