Liliana Fernandes is an Assistant Professor and researcher at Católica Porto Business School/School of Economics and Management (CPBS/FEG) and the Research Center in Management and Economics (CEGE) of the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP), Porto, Portugal, where she teaches since 2003.
She has research interests in social economy, namely, poverty and social exclusion, well‑being indicators, child well‑being, and she has also done research in the domain of public policy, namely forest policy.
Bachelor in Economics fom FEG, UCP, Porto. Master in Political Science and International Relations, thesis entitled "The Forestry Services in Portugal ‑ since its creation to the laws of the Forest Regime", by IEP, UCP, Lisboa, Portugal.
PhD in Economics, by FEG, UCP, Porto, thesis entitled "Three Essays on the Measurement of Child Well‑Being", with a Summa Cum Laude grade.
In March 2018 she was elected head of the Economics Department, activity which she carried until November 2021.
Participant in the CoLab "ProChild CoLab ‑Against Poverty and Social Exclusion", created in 2018, where she belongs to team responsible for developing the Observatory ProChild DATA, and, since March 2022, she is also a member of the Fiscal Council of the same CoLAB. Between 2018 and early 2019, she was a consultant for the UNICEF project "Situation Analysis of Children in Angola". In 2017 she became a member of the Scientific Committee for the project "Pobreza Infantil: Conhecer para Intervir” (“Childhood Poverty: Know to Intervene”), promoted by the European Anti‑Poverty Network (EAPN). In 2016‑2017 she was a consultant for a UNDP project in Cape Verde, “Multidimensional Child Poverty Study using MODA as part of a Child‑centered Disaster Risk Management in Cabo Verde”.
She has also participated in several consultancy projects through the Research Center in Management and Applied Economics (CEGEA) ‑ CPBS/FEG, UCP, Porto.
The following comprise some of the relevant activities carried out before 2015. In 2014 she became a research associate of the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) and in 2015 she became Senior Associate Research Fellow of the Social Policy Research Institute (SPRI). In August of 2014 she takes part, as an instructor, of the course "Design and Implementation of Social Protection Programmes in Mozambique", organized by EPRI, co‑financed by USAID and which tokk place in Namaacha, Moçambique. In 2013 she becomes a member of the advisory board for "UNICEF Report Card 12" (2014) and takes the role of guest co‑editor for a special issue of the Child Indicators Research journal (2015). In the same year she was given by the International Society on Child Indicators (ISCI) the "Kamerman & Kahn Young Scholar Award", at the "4th ISCI Conference: Child Indicators in a Globalized World: Implications for Research, Practice, and Policy”, which took place between the 28th and 31st of May in Seoul, South Korea. In 2013 as well, she assumed the role of principal country (Portugal) investigator on the project “Children’s Worlds: The International Survey of Children’s Well‑Being” (ISCWeB), supported by the Jacob’s Foundation. Between 2012 and 2014 she was a participant member in the COST Action IS1102 ‑ "Social Services, Welfare State and Places. The restructuring of social services in Europe and its Impact on social and territorial cohesion and governance".
In 2007, between October and December, she was accepted as a visiting research student at CASE (Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion) of London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.