The University of Lisboa is the largest university in Portugal with more than 52,000 undergraduate and 4,848 doctoral students in 18 faculties and 4,000 academic staff, occupying a top position in an international research network (28th position, THE list, 2023). Prof. Cecília Rodrigues, the leading partner and Vice-Rector for R&I at the University of Lisbon, is full professor of pharmaceutical sciences with a focus on liver pathobiology, translational sciences in drug and biomarker discovery, technology transfer and academia-industry collaboration. Her research has developed promising technologies protected by 4 global patents and explored by 2 spin-off companies currently in phase 3 clinical trials. She secured independent funding from public competitive sources and private investment, including the EU POINT4PAC project (project leader), the IMI2 LITMUS project (partner leader), the MSCA FoieGras project (partner leader) and the AstraZeneca Open Innovation project (leader). She is a member of several scientific advisory boards, journal editorial boards and various EU funding bodies.