Cláudia Sarrico was born in Aveiro, in 1971.
She holds a PhD in Industrial and Business Studies, specialising in Operational Research, from Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, and a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Aveiro.
She is a Full Professor at the University of Minho, where she is part of the Department of Management in the School of Economics, Management and Political Science. Previously, she was an Associate Professor at ISEG – Lisbon School of Economics & Management, University of Lisbon, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Aveiro.
Between 2015 and 2021, she served as Lead Policy Analyst for Higher Education at the OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. From 2023 until she took office in the XXV Constitutional Government, she led the Research and Innovation Careers Observatory, a joint initiative of the European Commission and the OECD.
Her research interests focus on quality and performance management in education, higher education, and research.
She is the author and editor of several books and reports, including Promoting Diverse Career Pathways for Doctoral and Postdoctoral Researchers, Resourcing Higher Education: Challenges, Choices and Consequences, and Benchmarking Higher Education System Performance, published by the OECD.
She has published around 40 articles in international scientific journals such as Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Higher Education, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management, Research Policy, Research Evaluation, Public Management Review, and Minerva.
She has worked as a consultant for national institutions including Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES), Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), EDULOG - the Think Tank of the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation, the National Education Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, and SEDES - Association for Economic and Social Development, as well as for international institutions such as the European Commission and the OECD.