Sílvia Ferreira holds a PhD in Sociology from Lancaster University (UK). She is an associate professor in Sociology at the Faculty of Economics of Coimbra University (FEUC) and a permanent researcher at the Centre for Social Studies. She lectures at undergraduate and graduate levels. Since 2021, she has been co-coordinating the Masters Programme on Social Intervention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Between 2011 and 2020, she was co-coordinator of the Sociology PhD Programme. Between 2015 and 2017, she coordinated the Sociology Degree and the Sociology Department. She was a member of the scientific board of FEUC between 2016 and 2024. Since 2025 she is Coeditor of the book series Routledge Studies in Social Enterprise & Social Innovation. Since 1996 she has been involved in research on social security reform, third sector and social policy, gender equality in third sector organisations, social entrepreneurship and social innovation in the social and solidarity economy, social enterprises, volunteering, and local governance through state/third sector partnerships. Currently, she is WP leader in the project EMCCINNO - EMpowering CCIs to boost systemic INNOvation for sustainable climate transition, funded by the European Commission (2025-2028), member of the team of the project ISII - Incubadora Social de Investigação e Inovação, funded by Portugal-Inovação Social (2024-2027). She was social economy expert in the project Training and Awareness-raising Activities in Socially Responsible Public Procurement", coordinated by DIESIS and funded by the EC (2025). She coordinated the research projects EMPOWER-SE ¿ Empowering the New Generation of Social Enterprise Scholars, funded by COST/EC (2021), TIMES ¿ Institutional Trajectories and Models of Social Enterprises in Portugal, funded by FCT/EU (2020) and the national study of the project "Up-date of the mapping of social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe", funded by EURICSE on behalf of the EC (2019). Since 2019 she co-founded and co-coordinates the section on Civil Society, Alternative Economies and Volunteering of the Portuguese Sociological Association. Since 2015, she is board member of EMES ¿ International Research Network, the main international research network on social enterprises. She was member of the board (2012-2014) and member of the permanent commission of the scientific council of the Center for Social Studies. Some of her relevant publications include: (2025) "Instituições e ação coletiva: construção e explicação de uma tipologia empírica das empresas sociais em Portugal", Análise Social; (2023), "O olhar sociológico sobre sociedade civil, economias alternativas e o voluntariado", Sociologia ONLINE (with C. Parente and R. Rego); (2022) "Social enterprises in culture and the arts: institutional trajectories of hybridisation in the Portuguese changing cultural mix", International Journal of Cultural Policy (with. P. Abreu and P. Fidalgo); (2021) Trajetórias Institucionais e Modelos de Empresa Social em Portugal. Coimbra: Centro de Estudos Sociais; (2021) "The emergence of a Social Innovation Ecosystem in Portugal: An exploratory approach based on the perspective of strategic stakeholders.", European Public & Social Innovation Review (with H. Pinto, A. Guerreiro); (2019) ¿Social Innovation and Public Policy¿, in Howaldt, J.; Kaletka, C.; Schröder, A.; Zirngiebl, M. (org.), Atlas of Social Innovation. New Practices for a Better Future, Dortmund: TU Dortmund Universit (with L. Hulgard); (2015) "Sociological Observations of the Third Sector through Systems Theory: An Analytical Proposal", Voluntas, 25(6);