European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Portuguese Prodigy
Previous Parts:
Part 15
Prior to joining the EPO, Sandro Mendonça pursued an academic career as an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics of Iscte - University Institute of Lisbon.
In the last part we provided our readers with an introduction to Sandro Mendonça, a relatively recent addition to "Team Campinos" who currently holds a position as "Advisor to the President".
In this part we will present some additional background information about Mendonça's activities before he joined the EPO.
Prior to joining the EPO, Mendonça pursued an academic career as an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics of Iscte - University Institute of Lisbon.
In addition to his tenured position at Icste, Mendonça was also an Invited Professor at ISEG, the School of Economics and Management at the University of Lisbon and Visiting Professor at the Università degli Studi dell’Insubria (Italy). He has also held teaching positions at a number of Chinese universities, namely the City University of Macau, the University of Electronic Science and Technology in Chengdu, Sichuan and the Southern Medical University in Baiyun, Guangzhou.
Mendonça studied economics at the Higher Institute of Economics and Management of the Technical University of Lisbon where he graduated in 1999. He then pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Sussex, where he was awarded a master's degree in "Technology Policies and Sciences" in 2001 and a doctorate in "Science and Technology Policy Studies" in 2012.
Sandro Mendonça graduated from the Higher Institute of Economics and Management of the Technical University of Lisbon in 1999 and subsequently pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Sussex.
In parallel with his academic career at Icste, Mendonça also held positions as Executive Board Member of the Portuguese communications authority ANACOM, member of the governing body of Ceadi (the intelligence council of the Brazilian telecommunications regulator, Anatel), delegate to the OECD Network of Economic Regulators, a member of the advisory board of the monitoring unit of the Portuguese official national authority for cybersecurity CNCS, science officer of the Ibero-American program for science and technology CYTED, member of the executive committee of the Portuguese media watch OberCom, and Fellow Economist at the European Commission (DG Grow) 2024.
In his role as Fellow Economist at the European Commission, Mendonça acted as the co-ordinator and co-author of a policy brief entitled "The Future(s) of Big Tech" published in February 2024 which aimed to "anticipate the implications of ‘Big Tech’ for Europe’s future by 2040".
Back home in Portugal, Mendonça appears to be a relatively well-known figure with something of a public profile. One of his online biographies describes him as "an economist with experience as a teacher, researcher, decision-maker, consultant and opinion-maker".
He has regularly authored "opinion pieces" in mainstream publications such as Expresso, Público, Diário de Notícias, Diário Económico, and Jornal Económico. A list of articles authored by him which have appeared in Expresso can be found here (in Portuguese). He has also written opinion pieces for the Macau Business magazine, the flagship publication of Macau Business Media.
It's worth noting that Mendonça's connections with EPO President Campinos can be traced back as far as 2007 when Campinos headed the Portuguese national IP office, Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI).
Issue no. 3 (2007) of the Portuguese INPI newsletter Marcas & Patentes contains an editorial attributed to António Campinos and a "statistical commentary" authored by Sandro Mendonça.
Evidence of this long-standing connection can be found in issue no. 3 (2007) of the INPI newsletter Marcas & Patentes (accessible via the official website of the Portuguese INPI). This issue of the INPI newsletter contains an editorial entitled "The importance of image in commerce" attributed to the INPI director António Campinos and a "statistical commentary" entitled "What the patents and trademarks reveal – data for the first six months of 2007" which was authored by none other than a young up‑and‑coming academic by the name of Sandro Mendonça, affiliated with the Department of Economics, ISCTE and the Science Policy Research Unit of the University of Sussex.
In the next part we will see how a key aspect of Mendonça's current role as a member of "Team Campinos" is to assist the EPO President in "leveraging the Lusitanian connection" on the campaign trail. █