F.R. Maia obtained her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Porto, in collaboration with the University of Nevada and the University of Lisbon, in 2014. The same year, she started as a Post-Doc fellow at 3B's Research Group. Since then, she has been engaged with several projects concerning developing bioengineered materials to model 3D native microenvironments for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. In 2017, she was awarded an FCT Post-Doc fellowship, which in 2019 gave place to a Junior Investigator position. Over the last years, she produced 45 publications (15 as first author and an average IF of 7.68). From these, 34 publications were produced in the former 5 years, 10 as 1st author, 9 as a corresponding author (Q1 journals), 1 with a supporting citation, 1 belonging to the Best Biomaterials Books of All Time (Featured on CNN, Forbes, and Inc), 1 highly cited and 1 international granted patent (PCT/IB2018/054213). Furthermore, she is editing a Major Reference Work entitled "Handbook of the Extracellular Matrix: Biologically-Derived Materials" (Order Number: 89166678, Springer) and a special issue in Pharmaceutics entitled “Application Prospect of Hydrogels in the Treatment of Osteochondral Lesions”. According to Google Scholar, her work has been cited 1607 times and has an h-index of 20. F.R. Maia devoted her path to developing bioengineered hydrogels for tissue engineering and developing 3D In vitro Tumor Models. Since 2019, she has been dedicated to developing and engineering cell-derived matrices to model the dynamic microenvironment of native tissue. Her efforts resulted in a protocol for efficient decellularization of cell-derived matrices and improved scaffolds for bone engineering. She was a team member of 10 concluded projects, 9 FCT-funded and 1 European Commission-funded (Total Funding: €2M). Also, she supervised 3 PhD, 3 MSc students, and 4 research trainees. Also, she has participated in several scientific international/national meetings with oral and poster contributions. She has also been an invited lecturer, a reviewer for 24 international scientific journals, a member of the editorial advisory board of 2 journals, and an expert evaluator for 1 international funding agency. Furthermore, she has been collaborating with senior researchers from several foreign institutions, such as Jillian Cornish (Cell and Molecular Biology Bone Research Group, University of Auckland), Chaozong Liu (IOMS, University College of London), and Ana Paula Alves (UNESP-Universidade Estadual Paulista). Also, she has been involved in different initiatives for enhancing public awareness of science, such as "UPA-Universidade Portas Abertas da Universidade do Minho" which is the annual presentation of UMINHO to students; "SAW: School At Work", which is a program that intends to integrate students into higher education; and "Pint of Science", where scientists can share their research with the general public. She has organized several events, such as Workshops in the scope of European Commission-funded projects.