João Lourenço Marques is associate professor with habilitation at the Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences of the University of Aveiro, lecturing courses in the areas of Urban and Regional Planning (quantitative methods and techniques to support decision making). He received his PhD degree in Social Sciences from the University of Aveiro (European PhD), after the MsC in Innovation and Regional Development Policies, and his graduation studies in Urban and Regional Planning by the same university. He was visiting researcher in three Scottish Universities: St Andrews, Dundee and Heriot-Watt (Edinburgh).

Currently he is integrated member of the Research Unit in Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), coordinating the Research Group of Systems for Decision Support – GOVCOPP. In the Research Group on Planning and Innovation (GETIN_UA: https://www.ua.pt/getinua/) has been conducting and coordinating several research and projects in the fields of strategic spatial planning, decision support systems, spatial competitiveness analysis, demographic dynamics and forecast, econometric models and economic models for regional development.

His current research interests are the development of tools and methodologies to support the decision-making for the public and private sectors. Several methods have been applied in different phases of a policy making process, that allow different levels and types of participation to capture the multiple preferences, desires and choices, that correspond to short and long-term visions. The application of these methodologies and tools covers various issues (housing, education, health, demography, mobility, infrastructure, employment etc.) and various territorial levels (from local to national scale). He is also director of the master’s in Data Science for Social Sciences; and member of the board of the Portuguese Regional Science Association (APDR: http://www.apdr.pt/).