The right decision is an informed decision
Anyone can tell you what makes for a successful policy: a clearly defined problem, realistic goals, evidence-based design, acceptance from your target audience, a favorable context. But good policy should also know and include its audience, clients and partners; it should align with the legal framework in which it navigates, and should be based on institutional reality — not intuition and guesswork.
We bring the knowledge behind this — the training and expertise that allow us to ask the right questions, to understand and measure how people think and behave, to understand legal boundaries and relevant institutional dynamics.
We’re equipped to translate complexity into feasible solutions.
Ana Lapa
Ph.D in Social Psychology, Assistant Professor at ISPA – Instituto Universitário and collaborating researcher of the William James Center for Research. Her main work focuses on cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and person perception.
Cristina Mendonça
Ph.D. in Social Psychology, post-doc at LIP – Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas and invited Professor at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics. Her main research involves the interplay of social factors and a wide array of judgment and decision-making contexts (e.g., ethical, organizational, and misinformation belief).
Heloísa Oliveira
Ph.D. in law and Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon School of Law, Research Fellow at Lisbon Public Law Research Center, Consultant at CEJURE (Legal Service of the Government). Her research is focused on public law and policy, particularly concerning current sustainability challenges. She acted as the Chief of Staff for the Secretary of State of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and as a legal adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In the private sector, she was a lawyer at Cuatrecasas.
João Martins
Ph.D. in Social Psychology and collaborating researcher of the William James Center for Research. His work is rooted in social cognition, spanning topics such as attitudes and behavior, memory, and person perception. Expert in scientific research, data analysis and statistical programming. Occasional lecturer of Social Psychology subjects at ISPA – University Institute.
Miguel Martinho
Graduated in Law from the University of Lisbon School of Law. A specialist in Plain Language, he has provided consultancy services to public and private entities through Claro, where he served as Executive Director and is a founding partner. From 2007 to 2011, he was an advisor to the Portuguese Ombudsman. He currently chairs the General Assembly of the cultural association Mina and collaborates with the association Kosmicare.
Peter Janson
Graduated in Economics from the Catholic University of Porto and holding a Master’s degree in Economic Development from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He is a business manager who collaborates regularly with the Cross-Disciplinary Area for Social Economy at the Catholic University of Porto, focusing on impact assessment for third-sector projects. He serves on the board of several civil society organizations, including Associação Abraço, Animais de Rua, and Associação Unificar. He has also worked as an advisor in the Portuguese Parliament from 2012 to 2017 and again in 2023.
Sílvia Pereira
Expert in public administration, with experience in both Portuguese and European contexts. She started her career path as a research assistant at the School of Law and at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, both at the University of Lisbon. Then, served as an adviser to the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister of Portugal, where she was involved in areas such as equality, culture, migration, territorial cohesion, and administrative management. Also served as an adviser to the Secretary of State for European Affairs, where she worked towards the transposition of European Union directives, event coordination and administrative management.