Maria Isabel Ferraz-de-Oliveira has a PhD in Animal Nutrition by the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and is an Assistant Professor at the  University of Évora, Zootechnics Department. She is an integrated member of MED, the Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development and coordinator of the Animal Nutrition Laboratory. Her research has been initially mostly devoted to animal nutrition and feeding in extensive production systems. More recently she has been working in High Nature Value Farming Systems and in the co-construction of outcome based agri-environmental schemes to improve the sustainability of silvo-pastoral systems, particularly the Montado.