Categoria
Professor
Unidade Orgânica
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Email
barbara.gabriel@ua.pt
Ciência ID
CB14-4845-0F92
ORCID iD
0000-0002-1519-7008

Bárbara Filipa Casqueira Coelho Gabriel, PhD, is an international expert in education, training, and higher education policy, with more than 25 years of experience in higher education, research, academic leadership, and European and international cooperation programmes.

Bárbara Gabriel expertise focuses on strengthening education and training systems through curriculum & pedagogical innovation, competence-based learning, continuous professional development, and institutional capacity-building, with particular emphasis on quality and innovation, namely in STEM, and higher education ecosystems.

She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Aveiro (Portugal), also the Vice-Dean for Internationalisation, Innovation and Inclusion at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and member of the Board of the Doctoral School of the university. In recognition of her contribution to engineering education, she received the Engineering Education Award at the 1st National Gala Engineering Awards (2024) of the Portuguese Order of Engineers, the first edition of this distinction.

Her experience is strongly aligned with European policy cooperation and system-level educational reform. She has acted as an expert for European Commission and OECD initiative HEInnovate, contributing to institutional self-assessment frameworks, innovation capacity-building, and the development of tools supporting education and training transformation in higher education institutions. She is a member of the OECD Mutual Learning Working Group on Advanced STEM Skills in Higher Education, contributing to international policy dialogue on skills development, education-to-work transitions, and workforce preparedness.

She was also evaluator for the Horizon Europe EIC Transition funding programme, and an expert in the European projects PROFFORMANCE and PROFFORMANCE+, implemented through consortia composed exclusively of national ministries and national higher education authorities across Europe, supporting evidence-based policy development and system-level improvement of teaching and learning quality.

Bárbara has coordinated seven European projects as Principal Investigator, leading the project and consortium in three of them, focusing on education and training, pedagogical innovation, continuous professional development, and capacity-building for institutions and stakeholders across Europe. She also brings early experience in applied research, industrial innovation in automation and electronics, including the founding of a technology-based company, strengthening her ability to connect education and training systems with industrial needs, technological development, and skills relevance.

Her profile combines policy-relevant expertise, European cooperation experience, and leadership in education and training innovation, with demonstrated capacity to support EU-level initiatives in education, training, youth-related skills development, institutional reform, and cross-sectoral cooperation.

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