In a career spanning more than 25 years, Afonso Ferreira has held European leadership roles in institutional policy and research. As an expert in the areas of Cybersecurity, Futures, and Policy Making, he recently spent six years seconded to the European Commission working as a policy and programme officer. He holds a PhD in Computer Science, is Directeur de Recherche with the French CNRS, and is currently the Programme Manager for European Affairs at the Toulouse Institute for Computer Sciences (IRIT), France.

Afonso has a deep understanding of the European landscape in cybersecurity, research, and innovation, thanks to 14 years working in Brussels and in European-related functions. His vision and his talks are greatly appreciated for their clarity and in 2017 he was invited around the world to explain European policy to audiences in Brussels, Madeira Island, Rome, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo, Tenerife, and Toulouse, among others.

Thanks to his large knowledge of the Digital Revolution and its widespread impacts, Afonso is advising private and public actors, which include the European Parliament and the European Commission, how to navigate the nexus of technology, futures, and policy. In addition to his Institutional experience, he worked in the areas of Communication Networks, High Performance Computing, and Algorithms, having published more than 100 papers in the forefront of scientific research. He has been member of more than 70 Technical Committees for international organisations and events and is an editorial board member for international scientific journals. For detailed information, see www.linkedin.com/in/cyberfuture.