Patrícia Costa holds a PhD in Production and Systems Engineering (thesis in the area of statistics/psychometrics) from the University of Minho, a Master's degree in Mathematics - Teaching (thesis in the area of statistics/psychometrics) from the University of Beira Interior and a degree in Mathematics - Educational Training from the University of Coimbra. Her research focuses on Educational Assessment, Applied Statistics, Comparative Education and Psychometrics. She is an integrated member of ISTAR-IUL - Information Sciences and Technologies and Architecture Research Center. She has experience in teaching Statistics and Mathematics in Higher Education, research and providing technical support to policy makers at the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission. She is the author/co-author of several scientific articles in international journals, book chapters and technical reports and has experience in organising international scientific events.