My academic journey started with undergraduate studies in Business Management at UBI in 1997. In 1999, I earned a Master's Degree in Management from UBI, focusing on Innovation and Technology Transfer. Following this, I completed my Doctoral Degree in Management in 2005 at UTAD, conducting a study about innovation in Portuguese industrial firms. From 1999 to 2016, my research concentrated on knowledge transfer, innovation, entrepreneurship, and regional development. In 2016, I had the title of Habilitation in Management from UBI, presenting a lecture focus on female entrepreneurship. Later, , a new research passion emerged: exploring the role that minority groups of entrepreneurs play in the economic and social development of low-density territories. I began my teaching career at the Department of Sociology, Economics & Management at UTAD in December 1997. Over the years, I progressed to become an Assistant Professor (2005), then an Associate Professor with habilitation (2020), and finally, a Full Professor (2023). Since 2005, I’m an integrated researcher at CETRAD. Between 2010 and 2020, I held the role of coordinator for CETRAD's Innovation, Organizations, and Markets research line. Since 2020, I have been appointed as deputy director of CETRAD. Since 2008, I have been course director at bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. In 2023, I have assumed the role of deputy director of Regia Douro Park. Throughout my career, I have significantly contributed to scientific literature (SCOPUS H-Index = 31, with 2901 citations), with publications in indexed scientific journals and authorship of several books and book chapters spanning the fields of: (1) innovation, focus in triple, quadruple and quintuple helix; (2) entrepreneurship education, focus on its impact on entrepreneurs (e.g., intentions) and territories (entrepreneurship ecosystems); and, (3) minority groups of entrepreneurs. Also, I play an active role as expertise to OECD for Inclusive Entrepreneurship Policies. Over the past six years, I've had the privilege of coordinating some project: ESPACIO T3, ET3_PARTICIPA, ETEIA project - Energy Transition Entrepreneurs in Action. Throughout my academic career, I've had the privilege of teaching thousands of students across undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs. Since 2007, I've delivered over 149 master's and 54 doctoral courses, in addition to more than 75 undergraduate courses at UTAD, Polytechnic of Porto, and the University of Fortaleza - UNIFOR (Brazil). In my role as an advisor, I've successfully guided 95 master's and 22 PhD students. In the past decade, I have been actively engaged in organizing both local and international scientific meetings, serving on both the local organizing and scientific commissions. Specifically, I have chaired the Seminário Luso Espanhol de Economia Empresarial 2024 and the Regional Helix’21, with the theme focused on Territorial Dimensions of Green and Digital Transitions. Since 2018, I have held the position of chair at the Conference of the Doctoral Programme in Development, Societies & Territories. In this role, I strive to encourage PhD students to share their investigations with stakeholders across the territory. In addition to my membership in the scientific committee of various conferences. I also serve on the Editorial Boards of Management Decision and the Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy. Furthermore, I am actively engaged in reviewing manuscripts for several reputable journals in the fields of business, innovation, and entrepreneurship, which are indexed in SCOPUS, WoS, and ABS ranking systems.