Introduction to the Science of Science

David Pina

David Pina is Portuguese, born in Paris. After spending his childhood in France, he moved back to Portugal, where he graduated in Biochemistry at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 1999. He completed his PhD at the University of Salamanca, Spain, in 2004, studying the structural stability of proteins, and subsequently was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institut Curie in Paris, France, and the University of Cambridge, UK. 

In 2007, he joined the European Commission as a project adviser within the Marie Curie Actions. Since then he has been responsible for the management of different programmes of FP7, Horizon 2020, and now Horizon Europe. He was, until February 2025, Head of Sector in the European Research Executive Agency, supervising the implementation and grant management of research projects’ portfolios, in aspects related to the grants' administration, finance, monitoring and compliance. On top of his scientific background, he graduated also in Public Administration from the University of Poitiers, France, and holds a Master degree in Public Law from the University of Rouen, France. Portuguese and French are his mother tongues, and he speaks fluently English and Spanish.

In the last few years, he has developed a particular interest in scientometrics, science policy and research evaluation and has published articles in those topics in journals such as PLOS ONE, eLife, F1000Research and Research Evaluation.