Sofia Fernandes is Senior Research Fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute since January 2010 where she works mainly on research projects related to the European Employment and Social Policies and the European Economic Governance. Sofia Fernandes is also associate professor at the European School of Political and Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Lille (ESPOL) where she lectures a course on the ‘European economic governance’. Since January 2013, she collaborates regularly with the European Institute for Public Administration (EIPA) through contributions in training programmes on the Economic and Monetary Union for European and national public servants.

Before joining the team of the Jacques Delors Institute, Sofia Fernandes was responsible for international cooperation at the Portuguese Institute for Quality – Ministry of Economy (2008-2009). In 2007, in the context of the Portuguese presidency of the EU, she worked as a deputy counsellor for competitiveness at the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the EU. From 2005 to 2007 she was a training and information officer at the Jacques Delors European Information Centre (CIEJD) in Lisbon. From 2007 to 2009 she continued to work with the CIEJD as a trainer on the history of European integration, the European institutions, the Lisbon Treaty and the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs.

Sofia Fernandes completed her degree in European Studies at the University of Lisbon and holds a Master degree in International Relations from the Higher Institute of Social and Political Science in Lisbon (ISCSP). She also holds a diploma in Economics from the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE) thanks to which she could join the PhD programme in Economics from the Higher Institute of Economics and Management in Lisbon (ISCTE). She has also studied, as part of the Erasmus programme, at the University of Bologna.