Filipe José Oliveira Costa (FC). Graduated in Marine Biology and completed MSc in Marine Ecology. His PhD was awarded in 2002 by Univ. Nova de Lisboa. He carried out postdoctoral research at Texas Tech University, USA (2003), at the Univ. of Guelph, Canada, between 2003 and 2005, and subsequently was granted a Marie Curie Fellowship at Bangor University, UK (2006-2007). He was awarded a Marie Curie Reintegration Grant in 2008, upon appointment as faculty at the Univ. of Minho, Portugal, where he currently serves as Associate Professor, and leads the Computing Life research group within CBMA.___ His research work involves the use of molecular markers for biodiversity research, in particular (e)DNA (meta)barcoding, to investigate marine biodiversity, ecology, and evolution, as well as the employment of DNA-based tools in marine monitoring, bioassessment and conservation.___ In 2003, FC joined the pioneering team on DNA barcoding at the University of Guelph, and since made pivotal scientific contributions to the field, including first authorship of the proof-of-concept study on Crustaceans [76], perspective and conceptual insights [69, 74] and benchmarking studies [e.g. ,54,59,67,70]. Through is pioneering work in DNA barcoding of marine life in Portugal and in Europe in general, he contributed to generate the backbone of a key scientific resource (in the form of publicly accessible reference libraries), and also extensive baseline data on the genetic diversity of marine organisms. Indeed, his studies helped to unravel extensive undescribed diversity and shedding new light into patterns of diversification, genetic structure and evolution of marine organisms [e.g. 11, 13, 40, 41, 42]. FC was also involved in key technical progresses, such as designing the successful Lobo primers [63], and among the first to propose ranking systems for reference libraries [66, see also 17], that ultimately led to the creation of software for automated auditing [BAGS, 29].___Pivotal contributions to the development and application of DNA metabarcoding, include benchmark studies on marine invertebrates [5,7,16,47,48], plus studies on meiofauna, including network analysis [19,32,33], as well as applications to ichthyoplankton and fish eDNA for supporting fisheries management and conservation (ongoing grants). Recognition of the reach and impact of FC´s research is patent in his role as Chair of the European branch of FISH-BOL, and as Portugal representative in large-scale international consortia, such as the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) and the COST Action DNAqua-Net. Joined the Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON) since 2022. Over the last 15 years was the Principal Investigator (PI) in 6 FCT grants (1 as co-PI), including 2 ongoing which involve Brazil, Cabo Verde and Guinea-Bissau, that were endorsed by UN Ocean Decade. He participated in multiple R&D projects, in most of them leading tasks [e.g. ATLANTIDA, R2O, K2D, NEXT-SEA], including salient international projects such as BIOSCAN and eDNAqua-Plan (Horizon Europe). Further recognition is expressed by chairing of international conferences (ECBOL2, 15th ICA), participation in international conference committees, invitation to lectures in international courses, to plenary talks in scientific events, and as expert in scientific workshops, among other.___He supervised 14 PDFs (3 ongoing), 13 PhDs (9 concluded) and 13 MSc (1 ongoing). FC co-authored >80 peer-reviewed articles and book-chapters, about 50% of which as first or last author, with a co-author network of 375 researchers from 50+ countries. He served in the Editorial Board of the journals Scientific Reports (2014-2024) and Metabarcoding and Metagenomics (since 2016). In 2020, he received from FCT a Prize for Scientific Research and Technological Development and, in 2022, was awarded a Prize for Recognition of the Impact of Scientific Research, by the School of Sciences of the UMinho.