Helena Machado is  Coordinating Researcher at CIES-Iscte – Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, University Institute of Lisbon. She is the Principal Investigator of the project fAIces – Facial Recognition Technologies: Etho-Assemblages and Alternative Futures, funded by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council.

Academic background, areas of specialisation, and research interests: Helena Machado holds a PhD in Sociology and is an internationally recognised scholar in Science and Technology Studies (STS), Social Studies of Artificial Intelligence, and the governance of emerging technologies. Her research examines how AI, biometric technologies and identification infrastructures reshape institutions, rights, inequalities and public participation across justice and health. Combining sociology, STS and empirical ethics, she investigates how technological futures are co-produced through scientific practices, regulation, public controversies and everyday experiences.

Within the ERC Advanced Grant fAIces, she studies the interconnected roles of scientists, technology companies, policymakers, civil society organisations and affected communities in shaping facial recognition technologies and alternative AI futures. Alongside this work, she developed an international research agenda at the intersection of AI, health and bioethics through collaboration with the Centre for Research Ethics and Bioethics (CRB), Uppsala University (September 2025-May 2026), focusing on the ethical governance of biometric AI, healthcare and public participation.

Awards and distinctions:

• European Research Council Grants:

  • Advanced Grant (2025) – fAIces – Facial Recognition Technologies

  • Consolidator Grant (2015) – Exchange Project – Social Studies of Forensic Genetics

• Scientific Merit Award, University of Minho (2022)

• Women in Science Award – Ciência Viva, Portugal (2019)

Previous positions: Full Professor in the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Minho (2017–2025); Director of the School of Social Sciences (2019–2022); Coordinating Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (2014–2017); Associate Professor (2009–2014) and Assistant Professor (2003–2009) at the University of Minho.