SEIZE THE POTENTIAL - Key Persons
Ana has over 15 years of professional experience supporting the development of sustainability plans, policies and projects.
Since June 2023, Ana is supporting the European Climate Pact secretariat - an initiative of the European Commission. Ana's role includes supporting the set-up and coordination of in-country structures and the development of processes, partnerships and resources to support citizen engagement.
Previously, Ana supported the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, Means of Implementation Division, Climate Finance subdivision (2022-2023) in the coordination and management of the Needs-Based Finance (NBF) project. In this role, she provided organizational support to several events, policy dialogues and workshops on climate finance access and mobilization as part of the intergovernmental processes, particularly during the COP27 and CMA4 at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
Ana has supported the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and partners in the coordination of the GEO-LDN international technology-innovation competition for development of a tool to mainstream the Land Degradation Neutrality scientific-framework into urban and territorial planning processes (2020-2021). Previously, she had provided advisory to the UNCCD's Capacity Development and Innovations Office (2020).
For more than three years (2018-2020), Ana has also supported the European Commission in the evaluation of grant applications under several funding programmes in the fields of Environment, Energy and Innovation.
Ana's experience in international cooperation include also contributions to initiatives led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN-Habitat, ICLEI, GIZ, and the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund. She has also participated as an expert in international workshops and meetings hosted by the World Bank, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the European Union's Joint Research Center (JRC), and the LEDS Global Partnership.
Ana actively contributed to the development of the SuRe® Standard for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, a process led by the Global Infrastructure Basel, and the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories, led by the World Resources Institute.
Her areas of expertise include topics such as low-emission development strategies, sustainable energy action planning and stakeholder engagement, greenhouse gas emission inventories, energy management systems according to ISO 50001, environmental systems according to ISO 14001, environmental impact assessment of projects, strategic assessment of urban plans, evaluation of projects and business plans, and life-cycle assessment of energy and commodities.
Job Titles:
- Fellow of the Marie Curie Actions
Robert has over 13 years of experience in international research projects, developing his work at top research institutions in Portugal (University of Lisbon, IST/IN+), France (École Centrale Paris/ EM2c, CERFACS), UK (University of Cambridge, Energy Group) and Germany (Technical University of Munich, Thermodynamics Department), within consortiums that include both academia and industry partners. His degree in Mechanical Engineering, with emphasis on thermodynamics and energy conversion, enables him to tackle new technologies and challenges related to applied thermodynamics.
While advancing the state of the art on the subjects that he was researching, he gained know-how on combustion systems ranging from domestic heating appliances to high power Gas-turbine flames, typical of power production and aircraft propulsion systems.
As fellow of the Marie Curie Actions, Robert had access to a European-wide training network. He acquired a broad understanding of the overall combustion and aero/ thermo-acoustic topic, taking part in workshops that included, for example, "Bio-fuels in combustion systems" or "Control techniques on combustion instabilities".
He has extensive experience in developing and running experimental set-ups, with diagnostic techniques that include, e.g. laser velocimetry, high speed imaging and pressure sensors. He has done computational fluid dynamics simulations and advanced data processing, using commercial, in-house and original code on large Super-computing facilities.