Delfina Soares

She holds a PhD in Information Technologies and Systems (ITS), a Master’s degree in Computer Science, and a Bachelor’s degree in Systems and Informatics Engineering from the University of Minho, obtained in 2010, 1999, and 1994, respectively.

She is Director of the Operating Unit on Electronic Governance at the United Nations University (UNU-EGOV), where she has been active since 2015, when she joined the Unit as an Associate Researcher.

She is also a Professor in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Minho and a researcher at the ALGORITMI Centre of the same university, where she has been teaching and conducting research since 1994.

Her research areas focus on electronic governance (e-Government) at national, local, and sectoral levels; inter-institutional relations and interoperability in the public sector; administrative simplification, transformation, and modernisation; electronic democracy and participation; and the measurement and monitoring of e-Government.

Over recent years, she has coordinated and collaborated on research, development, consultancy, advisory, and capacity-building projects with governmental entities from multiple countries, such as Angola, Saudi Arabia, Cabo Verde, Colombia, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Uganda, among others, as well as with international organisations such as UNDESA, UNDP, UNECA, UNESCO, and the World Bank, focusing on the use of digital technologies to promote the reform, transformation, and modernisation of State governance activities.