Helena Vieira is a Coordinator Researcher and ERA CHAIR Holder at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She is responsible for coordinating a new team at the CESAM research unit for Environmental Economics and Natural Resources, joining natural and socioeconomic sciences to develop further knowledge and sustainable future solutions. She acts as Mission Board member to the EU Mission to restore our oceans and waters and is elected Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Circular BioBased Europe Joint Union (CBE-JU). Previously, she acted as Director General of Maritime Policy under the Minister of the Sea of the XXII Government of Portugal. She has been a lecturer (U. Lisbon and U. Angola) and a consultant expert (United Nations, EU-BioBased Industry, CBE-JU, BlueBio Co-Fund, European Innovation Council, EASME), held political and administrative roles in national government and European Commission, and also acted as manager and coordinator of some companies/teams in the fields of life and ocean sciences and bioeconomy. An entrepreneur at heart, she founded a few start-ups and was co-founder and CEO (2005–2013) of BIOALVO SA, a Portuguese marine biotech company. She was also Executive Director of BLUEBIO ALLIANCE (2014–2019), the Portuguese network for the marine bioresources sector. She has a PhD in Biomedicine (Imperial College of London) and an Executive Post Graduation in Leadership and Strategy in Biotech and Pharma from Harvard Business School.