Prof. Dr. Sandra Martins Pereira is FCT Principal Investigator at CEGE, Research Center in Management and Economics, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, where she coordinates the area of palliative care research within the Ethics and Sustainability Research Area. She was the Director of the Institute of Bioethics and coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Bioethics (June 2020 to November 2022).

Sandra obtained her Ph.D. in Bioethics in 2011. She holds a post-doctorate (three years) in bioethics; a master in Bioethics; a post-graduation in Palliative Care (IPVC-ESS); a BSc in education sciences (University of Porto); and a BSc in nursing (Nursing College of Porto). Sandra was post-doctoral research fellow (Experienced Researcher) within the EU FP7 Marie Curie ITN funded project Euro-Impact (Vrije Universiteit Medisch Centrum Amsterdam-VUmc, Netherlands). She was visiting researcher at the End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Belgium), the Klinik für Palliativmedizin, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen (Germany), and the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (Netherlands). 

Sandra teaches and coordinates academic activities on ethics in palliative and end-of-life care, biomedical ethics, research ethics and responsible conduct of research, and empirical research methods. She coordinates the CADOS (Católica Doctoral School) Course on Ethics and Integrity in Science. She is Invited Professor of Palliative Care and Ethics at the Institute of Health Sciences (UCP); founding member of the Portuguese Observatory on Palliative Care; and member of the Ethics Committee of the Higher School of Nursing of Porto. 

Sandra worked as a Senior Researcher at the VUmc, EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, Amsterdam. She was Associate Professor at Universidade dos Açores, where she taught Ethics, Palliative Care, Gerontology, Chronic diseases in adults and older people, created and coordinated a Post-Graduation Course in Palliative Care. Previously, she worked as a clinical nurse in different university hospitals and primary care centers in Portugal. 

Since 2016, Sandra is screening editor and editorial board member of Palliative Medicine (SAGE), the top-leading journal in the field of palliative care. She has supervised and integrated the jury of more than sixty masters, doctorate, and professorship candidates in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Netherlands, Norway, and Ireland. She is evaluator for European funding agencies (e.g., Research Foundation, Flanders, FWO, Belgium; European Science Foundation ESF, France). 

Sandra was the first Portuguese citizen to be voted to the Board of Directors of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) where she was Vice-President (2019-2023). She integrated the Steering Group of the EAPC Taskforce on Education for Psychologists (2009-2011) and co-chaired the EAPC Taskforce on preparation for practice in Palliative Care Nursing across the EU (2014-2020). She works actively in several international and research-based taskforces and reference groups of the EAPC (e.g., aging and palliative care, advance care planning in dementia, palliative care for refugees and migrants, wish to hasten death) and integrated the EAPC Social Media team. 

Sandra’s research combines the areas of palliative and end of life care, empirical bioethics research, and clinical ethics; using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. She has led studies on the ethical dimensions of palliative and end-of-life care, including end-of-life decisions and the integration of palliative care across healthcare settings (e.g., intensive care, burns, psychiatric care, home care).

Sandra is leading a Work Package on the ethical, sociocultural and policy analysis within the EU-funded Horizon Europe Project PAL-CYCLES: PALliative Care Yields Cancer welLbEing Support. She is Co-Chair of a COST Action (CA22127) about palliative care education in the WHO Euro-region and acts as Independent Ethics Advisor, member of International Advisory Boards, and member of Data Management Committees for H2020 and Horizon Europe projects in the field of health research (e.g., palliative care, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, dementia, and artificial intelligence).

Her research has informed health policy and triggered strategic planning, service, and education developments as well as dialogue with the public and the media about palliative care. Her work has reached the public arena via international and national press coverage (e.g., by Forbes, MedicalNewsToday, MedicalXPress, Deutsches Ärzteblatt, Público).

The quality of her work has been widely recognized. One of her projects on decision-making in end-of-life situations has been awarded, in 2018, the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence by the European Commission (EC). In 2019, the EC, ERA, recognized Sandra as one of the FP7 Marie (Sklodowska-)Curie actions M(S)CA People programme researchers with an exceptional career path for research. In 2021, she was selected to integrate a worldwide report on the “World Health Day 2021” published by WHPCA, IAHPC and ICPCN, three worldwide associations in palliative care. Through her work, she pursues high-quality research and outputs that positively influence healthcare practices and policies with a meaningful societal impact.