Sara Moreno Pires is Assistant Professor of Public Policies at the Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences (UA) and effective member of GOVCOPP. She is Co-Founder (since 2018) and President (since 2023) of the Environmental Non-Governmental Organization Common Home of Humanity.

She was the scientific coordinator of the Ecological Footprint of Portuguese Municipalities project (2018-2021), developed by Global Footprint Network, the ENGO ZERO and the UA, awarded in 2022 with the prize UA Cooperation 2021, for the strong impact in cooperation with society for environmental sustainability. She was also the UA coordinator of the ERASMUS+ Project EUSTEPs Enhancing Universities' Sustainability Teaching and Practices through Ecological Footprint (2019-2022).

She received the 2023 Sustainability Award from the North American Association AASHE (Sustainability Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education), for co-authoring a scientific article on Education for Sustainability in HEI published in 2022. She was an appointed member of the Pedagogical Innovation Team of UAveiro (2022-2023) and coordinates a pedagogical innovation project "ARTE: Reflective Learning through Theater for Socio-Ecological Transformation (2023-2025)", supported by the Incentive for Pedagogical Innovation Projects of the UA, 2023 Edition.

She mainly focuses her research on sustainable development indicators and public policies for urban sustainability and climate action, green transition and territorial innovation, with a focus on local governance. She participates in several national and international projects and is the author and co-author of several sustainability and local governance articles in international journals. She has also been collaborating in sustainability projects with Local Councils, NGOs and private companies.