Dr. Maria Joana Ferreira da Silva, Ph.D. in Biosciences since 2012, is an FCT associated researcher in BIOPOLIS/CIBIO (CEECIND/01937/2017, 2019-2025). Before, she was an FCT-funded postdoctoral researcher (2013-2019, five months interruption for maternity leave). Her main research areas are Biological Anthropology and Conservation Biology. She investigates the relationship between human and African non-human primates and the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the distribution, socio-ecology, and conservation. The overarching goal is to improve management of threatened taxa in developing countries. She has been investigating African (threatened) primates in Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Mauritania, and Mozambique, using inter-disciplinary methods - ethnography, population genetics and genomics, and spatial ecology). She has published on themes such as biological anthropology, population and conservation genetics/genomics, perceptions on non-human primates, illegal wildlife trafficking, behavioural adaptations and human evolution. For the last five years (2019 to 2024), MJFS published 19 papers (four as first author and one as senior author) and two book chapters. MJFS reached 33 publications from 2012 (Google scholar, h index = 14, 585 citations, a mean of 2.6 papers per year, accessed on 12st January 2024). Publications were in peer-reviewed international journals considered prestigious (Q1) for multidisciplinary fields (eLife IF 8.7, Scientific Reports IF 4.9, iScience IF 6.1), and for the fields of conservation (Conservation Science and Practice, IF 3.57, Conservation biology IF 7.6), evolution (BMC Ecology and Evolution IF 3.4, Journal of Human Evolution IF 3.7), and primatology (American Journal of Primatology IF 3.0). She has also published in IUCN-SSC specialist journals and Guinea-Bissau scientific journal for public outreach. She delivered > 60 communications in scientific/outreach meetings (26 as an invited keynote speaker). She was awarded > 300 k euros from national and international funding agencies (2012-2024). During the last 5 years (which encompassed a pause of two years of funding opportunities due to COVID disruptions), she was awarded 78 k euros (14,3 k during 2023), which included funds for supervised PhD students (five projects, 22,4 k euros) and research projects as a member (two projects, 55 k euros). She is currently the PI of a project to understand the illegal trade of primate meat in bars and restaurants in Guinea-Bissau. She is an invited lecturer on Primatology/Conservation Genetics in national and international Universities. She currently co-supervises three PhD students and has supervised one PhD and eleven postgraduates students to completion. She is internationally recognised as an expert in primatology and conservation genetics. She is as IUCN conservation status invited-assessor (Papio papio, and Piliocolobus badius and spp. temminckii) and a member of the IUCN Primate exploitation/Human-Primate Interactions working group. She was the president of the Portuguese Primatology Association from 2019 to 2021. She is the PI of the PRIMACTION research group (2023-present, see https://primactionproject.wixsite.com/my-site-2), a senior member of TROPBIO and BIODESERTS groups in CIBIO-InBIO and of the interdisciplinary international Paleo Primate on human evolution in the Gorongosa NP, Mozambique. She is an invited external funding evaluator for the International Society of Primatology, the French National Research Agency (Living Earth panel), and Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council, UK. She is very committed to primate conservation causes and has produced a song composed by a Guinea-Bissau singer and musician, with the interlude by Dame Jane Goodall in 2023.