Who we are
The Journalism Science Alliance team is made up of people from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and the European Journalism Centre (EJC). Our team brings together journalists, science communicators, scientists, and science managers who believe in the importance of investigative journalism backed by science.
Pedro Coelho
Pedro Coelho works at SIC, a national TV channel, and is one of the most awarded Portuguese investigative journalists. Since 2006, he also taught journalism to both masters and undergraduate students at NOVA University, where he finished his Ph.D. in 2014.
Claudia Fasano
Claudia Fasano works as Marketing and Communications Manager at the European Journalism Centre, with a 7 years experience working with nonprofits, cultural projects, and values-led brands and companies. She has joined the EJC in 2024, and she specialises in sustainable marketing and ethical storytelling, with a strong focus on communicating climate and sustainability issues.
Vera Penêda
Vera Penêda works as Director of Programmes & Impact at the European Journalism Centre. She leads initiatives to strengthen independent journalism across Europe and has over 15 years of experience in international NGOs and major newsrooms across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. She has secured long-term partnerships with institutions such as the European Commission, the Gates Foundation, and YouTube, with a focus on newsroom innovation and media resilience.
Ana Sanchez
Ana Sanchez is a plant biologist turned science communicator. She is currently vice-dean at ITQB NOVA, a research institution in biological sciences and one of the nine units of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. Before, Ana served as Member of the Board of the Portuguese science funding agency, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (2016-2019). Since 2011, she co-directs the Master in Science Communication at NOVA, which has the daily radio program “90 segundos de ciencia” as its most important spin off.
Rita Silva
Rita Silva is a science communicator at NOVA University of Lisbon, where she develops and implements communication activities related to the FRONTIERS project.
Previously, she has worked as a science communicator at Instituto de Ciências Sociais, in Lisbon, at EPOS-ERIC, in Rome, and the United Academics Foundation, in Amsterdam.
Paulo Vicente
Paulo Nuno Vicente is a former radio journalist and documentarist, who finished his PhD in 2013 and since then has been working at NOVA University. He is the director of iNOVA Media Lab, a research facility working at the intersections of digital media arts, sciences and technologies.
Lucas Daniels
Lucas Daniels works as Marketing, Communications and Web/IT Lead at the European Journalism Centre (EJC). He is interested in how multimedia, web development, design and communications can work together to create better user experiences. With 14 years of experience in multimedia, design, web development and marketing, he contributes in a multidisciplinary way to projects that support journalism.
António Granado
António Granado is an associate professor at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, where he co-directs, since 2011, the master programme in Science Communication. For more than 26 years, he worked as a science journalist, mainly at Público, one of Portugal’s main daily quality newspapers, where he also was science editor, sub-editor-in-chief, managing editor and online editor. From 2010 to 2014, he worked as the online editor of RTP, the Portuguese public television.
Eudora Ribeiro
Eudora Ribeiro is a communication specialist who has served as a journalist for 14 years in several Portuguese media, notably SIC, a national TV channel, Diário Económico, that was one of the leading Portuguese economic newspapers, and the news agency Lusa. She has a PhD in Communication Sciences, specializing in Media and Journalism Studies, and is a researcher at ICNOVA – NOVA Communication Institute.
Zlatina Siderova
Zlatina Siderova works as Programme Lead Grants at the European Journalism Centre (EJC). She joined EJC in 2018 and has 16 years of project management and consulting experience in the public, private, and NGO sectors, including programmes implemented with the financial support of the EU.
Marjan Tillmans
Marjan Tillmans works as Project Manager at the European Journalism Centre. She is part of the Grants Team. She has 30 years of experience in project management. Previously she was responsible for media assistance programme implementation in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia.