Lídia Cunha holds a MsC in Chemical Engineering (FEUP, 2016). Her master dissertation focused on the development of gold nanoparticles-based drug delivery systems for cancer treatment (thesis title: Functionalized gold nanoparticles as a versatile vehicle to delivery anticancer drugs), at LEPABE in FEUP. In 2016/ 2017, Lídia co-founded two startups (Toca do granel; Biograma) focused on the food organic area. Additionally, she worked as a consultant (since 2018) in an international laboratory (NEOTRON). Since 2021, her motivation has been directed towards the research field, where she has been involved in nanotechnology and hydrometallurgy projects. In 2021, Lídia studied the design of nanocarriers based on gold nanoparticles for the treatment of chronic skin diseases. In 2022, she published in an international scientific journal with high impact factor and 1st quartile – Pharmaceutics. The findings showed that gold nanoparticles can be employed as a carrier to boost the antioxidant activity of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in cancer tissues in pancreatic cancer cells. Since 2022, Lídia has been actively engaged in the hydrometallurgy field as a researcher at CERENA, a laboratory with an excellent grade, allocated to two projects. Lídia was involved in Cavali project, where she studied lithium sorption by ion exchange. The developed work focuses on lithium production for electric vehicles intended to be implemented in Portugal. Currently, she is a researcher in the INN4MIN project, studying the extraction of precious and semi-precious metals from printed circuit boards to reduce their environmental impacts and improve mineral processing efficiency while promoting best practices in the industry. Environmental conservation and entrepreneurship are the main areas in which Lídia is more attracted and fulfilled. She felt inspired to transition from the nanotechnology area to hydrometallurgy, as it aligns more closely with her passion for addressing environmental challenges and finding innovative solutions to mitigate adverse impacts on human health while safeguarding essential metal resources. This over-all professional experience has given her her important data analysis and technical skills at an industrial market level. Lídia is highly motivated to pursue further education as a doctoral researcher, which might provide an opportunity to apply her PhD project in the B|AGAIN, a new company of DST group