Joana Araújo Lopes has a PhD in “History, Security Studies and Defence” from Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte) / Military Academy. In 2023, she concluded her thesis - supported by a national PhD fellowship  - about the fight against terrorism in Portugal and Spain, within the context of the European Union (2004-2020). She holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2017).

Since January 2024 she works as a trainee-NATO Consultant at NATO JALLC. Between Janurary and October of 2023 she worked as a trainee at the National Defence Policy Directorate of the Ministry of National Defence. In previous years, Joana was an intern at the Embassy of the United States in Lisbon, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Directorate-General of Foreign Policy) and the National Defence Institute. She worked as research assistant for the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI) and is a member of the Expert Group on "Terrorism and Political Violence" of the National Defence Institute.

Her main research interests focus in international security, terrorism, counterterrorism, violent extremism, radicalization and diplomacy. She's an associated researcher at IPRI-NOVA.

In 2017, she was one of the representatives for Portugal in MIRAI programme, held in Tokyo, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. She has participated in several international programmes, namely at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, The Royal Netherlands Military Academy, the European Parliament and the European University Institute (Florence), among others. Joana Lopes has also been in various multilateral simulations, including the Portugal Model of United Nations (Lusíada University) (2014), and the Act-Unibo NATO Model Event (North Atlantic Council), promoted by Bologna University and NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) (2018).