Esther Menéndez, PhD Junior Researcher MED- Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development) University of Evora-Nucleo da Mitra, Apartado 94, 7002-774 Evora, Portugal Phone: + 351 266760800 Ext: 24374/44114 (Lab.), 24378 (Office) E-mail: esthermenendez@uevora.pt ORCID iD: orcid.org/0000-0003-2320-0067 Research interests as listed in CienciaVitae CV: plant-microbe interaction; symbiosis; plant probiotic bacteria; plant microbiome; soil microbiome; rhizobia; bacterial endophytes. Dr. Esther Menendez has a PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics awarded with honors (“cum laude”) in the Universidad de Salamanca. She has a strong network of contacts with several research centers and researchers within her research field. She has been contracted as a postdoc researcher in the University of Salamanca (USAL, Spain) and in the University of Évora (UÉ, Portugal). At USAL, she belonged to the Mutualistic Interactions Group from the Department of Microbiology and Genetics as well as to the Spanish-Portuguese Agrarian Research Institute. In order to complete her scientific career, she performed 3 international stays at the University of North Texas (US), John Innes Centre (UK) and CEBAL (Centro de Biotecnologia Agrícola e Agro-Alimentar do Alentejo, Portugal) After a 2-year postdoctoral period at USAL, from October 2016, she moved to the recently named MED - Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (former ICAAM), in which she developed her research lines. At first, she worked as postdoc in theAdvanced Microscopy and Cytometry Unit and then, she was contracted with a project co-financed with European Funds H2020, named “Improvement of pasture production in acid soils in the Montado system: Chemical and biological approach (ALT20-03-0145-FEDER-000039)”, in which she was involved in the process to request an European patent, amongst other scientific duties. Moreover, she is involved in other national projects as participant researcher. From April 2019, she moved to a Junior Researcher Position from the 2017 Individual Call of the Scientific Employment Stimulus awarded by the Fundação de Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) of Portugal. Then, she earned a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship, which makes her come back to USAL in September 2020 to start the H2020-MSCA-IF-2019 project GA nº 897795 for 2 years. Dr. Esther Menéndez presented her scientific results and collaborations in more than 30 national and international conferences (more than 90 communications) and also belonged to the organizing committee of 2 conferences. Moreover, she was invited to give 3 seminars and also, invited as keynote speaker in 2 international conferences. She has participated in more than 10 research projects (2 as PI) and 8 teaching innovation projects. She supervised 6 final year projects (5 TFG/final year project and 1 Master Thesis/"Tesina") and one Doctoral Thesis. She also has 415 hours of teaching experience and supervises 2 PhD and 1 Masters´ students. Dr. Esther Menéndez has published 29 peer-reviewed regular scientific articles (12 Q1). She is Guest Editor of 2 Special Issues and acts as regular reviewer of several high-quality journals. In addition to the high-quality index publications, Dr. Esther Menéndez has also published several articles in dissemination journals (3) and performed a wide variety of outreach activities, including a weekly radio show and several scientific activities like European Researchers Night, amongst others.