Maria José Sousa (PhD in Industrial Management, with Habilitation in Management and Public Management) is an associate professor and researcher at ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon. She served as Pro-Rector (2022–2024) and was a member of the scientific committee of the PhD in Law and Economics (Cycle XXXIX) at the University of Molise. She was also a member of the Advisory Board of Banco Português de Fomento in the area of Public Policies (2024–2026).

She held a postdoctoral position from 2016 to 2018, researching digital education, with several publications in high-impact journals (Journal of Business Research, Journal of Grid Computing, Future Generation Computer Systems, among others). She worked as an expert on a European Commission project to create a new category of digital skills to be included in the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS).

She was a member of the Coordinating Committee of the PhD in Management at Universidade Europeia. She also served as Senior Researcher at the Office of Strategy and Studies (GEE) of the Portuguese Ministry of Economy, responsible for Innovation, Research, and Entrepreneurship Policies, and as Knowledge and Skills Manager at AMA, I.P. (Administrative Modernization Agency, under the Ministry of the Presidency and the Council of Ministers). She also worked as a Project Manager at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, responsible for Innovation Projects and Projects for the Evaluation and Development of Qualifications.

Her current research interests focus on Organisational Innovation, Digital Transformation of the Organisations and AI in Human Resources Management and Development. She is co-author of more than 180 scientific articles and book chapters (European Planning Studies, Information Systems Frontiers, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, among others). She has been guest editor of more than 10 special issues for Elsevier and Springer.

She served as Chair of ISO/TC 260 – Human Resource Management, representing Portugal at ISO – International Organization for Standardization. She coordinates and participates in several European innovation projects (funded by programmes such as Erasmus+, Horizon Europe, and ICMPD) and is also an External Expert of the COST Association – European Cooperation in Science and Technology, as well as an expert for the European Innovation Council (EIC) in Research and Innovation.