Isabel C. F. R. Ferreira

Isabel Cristina Fernandes Rodrigues Ferreira (born 1974) is a Portuguese scientist specialising in the agri-food sector, and a politician. Between 2019 and 2022 she was Secretary of State for Upgrading the Interior and between 2022 and 2024, she was Secretary of State for Regional Development. In the March 2024 national election she was elected to the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic to represent Bragança.

Early life Ferreira was born on 2 January 1974, in Nampula in Portuguese Mozambique. Her family moved to Bragança in Portugal when she was eleven months old. She obtained a degree in biochemistry from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and a master's degree and PhD in chemistry from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Minho.

Academic career Ferreira is a principal coordinating professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança. She has also served as vice-president of the institute and as director of the Mountain Research Centre of the institute and a mentor at the Mountains Research Collaborative Laboratory (MORE). Her extensive research has led to the publication of 60 book chapters and more than 600 scientific articles. She also has several patents to her name, mainly resulting from technology transfer to industry.

Following the defeat of the PS in the 2024 election, Ferreira ceased to be a secretary of state. However, she had been nominated at the top of the list of PS candidates for the Bragança constituency and was elected to the national assembly, as the only PS representative in the three-seat constituency.

Awards and honours Awards received by Ferreira have included:

2019 – Winner of the European Social Innovation Award 2017 – Awarded with the Medal of Merit from the Municipality of Bragança. 2016 – Distinguished by the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture, in the book Mulheres na Ciência (Women in Science). 2014 – Winner of the Horticultural Operational and Technological Centre (COTHN) award for R&D and Innovation 2001 – Winner of the Gulbenkian Prize for Stimulating Scientific Research