Carolina Varela has a MSc in Development and International Cooperation at ISEG-Lisbon School of Economics and Management of the University of Lisbon. Her career started with international cooperation projects in Spain followed by a five year experience as a research manager, most recently as a pre-award advisor at the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She is an active member of several Portuguese research managers and science communicators science networks such as, the national network Plataforma de Interface à Ciência and the Lisbon network Finca Pé. Her research interests focuses on the comparative analysis and international benchmarking of RDI policies.

She currently serves as the Policy Analyst at ICoRSA.