Economist. Professor of Regional and Urban Economics at the Faculty of Economics, University of Algarve. Member of CinTurs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, currently involved in the coordination of the Tourism and Hospitality Management research line. Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (permanent member between 2016-2022), when he coordinated NECES - Research Group in Science-Economy-Society. In the last twenty years Hugo Pinto has collaborated with several R&D organisations in Portugal, such as CRIA University of Algarve, Business Innovation Centre Algarve, Centre for Marine Sciences, and University of Aveiro. He was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Advanced Social Studies of the Spanish National Research Council (2010). His individual research has been developed with the support of FCT: As a Professor with an Institutional CEEC (2022-…), as a Researcher with an Individual CEEC, 2018-2022), as post-doctoral researcher (2013-2018) and PhD grant (2008-2011). Graduate in Economics, Master in Regional Economics and Local Development, Doctorate in Knowledge, Governance and Innovation. He has participated in and/or been the promoter of several R&D and collaborative projects. Two recent FCT projects can be highlighted: TIMES - Institutional Trajectories and Social Enterprise Models in Portugal and EmployALL - The employment crisis and the welfare state in Portugal. Hugo was the main organizer of the implementation of the Interreg Atlantic Social Lab project (2017-2023), which established an international observatory acting as a think tank and monitoring tool. Now, he is involved in the flagship project of the University of Algarve, SEA-EU European University of the Seas, where he participates in and leads various activities, in particular as the University's representative in the Sustainable Blue Economy Observatory. His research interests are: economic geography of innovation, regional development and resilience, university-industry relations, smart specialisation, and the blue economy. His research combines quantitative - econometrics and multivariate statistics - and qualitative methods, including content analysis, interviews and focus groups. Hugo has been involved in the preparation and evaluation of several policies, such as those related to Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3). He was particularly involved in the development of the S3 Algarve (2012) and was the coordinator of S3 Pernambuco, Brazil (2017), one of the first S3 experiences supported by the European Commission outside Europe. He participated in several expert groups organised by the European Commission, particularly those dealing with Lagging regions. He is an active member of Portuguese Association for Regional Development (APDR) and Portuguese Association for Political Economy (EcPol).