After participating in 7 international projects in the area of energetic materials during her PhD, she contributed actively to the development of 22 funded projects in the area of nanotechnology (5 international). Most of them (17) aim(ed) the development of surface-modified and reinforced silica nanostructured materials (aerogels, mainly) for insulation, environmental remediation or biomedical purposes. She was/is PI and/or responsible by UC contribution of 9 of these projects (4 international). She has successfully supervised 4 PhD finished works (2 more ongoing), 60 MSc theses, 8 IAESTE/mobility trainees and +20 project researchers. She published ca. 90 peer reviewed papers/book chapters and over 100 papers/abstracts in conference proceedings. Her h-index is 26 (Scopus/WoS). She is co-inventor of 4 international patents (2015, 2022). She received the prize "247 Anos FCTUC" (2019) for the international impact of the publications in 2018, and one of her papers (DOI: 10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2013.10.017) was distinguished by Elsevier with the prize “The 2018 Most Downloaded Article Award”. Moreover, she is member of the Technical Commission CT194-Nanotechnologies of the Portuguese Institute of Quality, linked to ISO and CEN standardization bureaus. She organized 6 scientific seminars/meetings/webinars and is a regular contributor to Science dissemination open activities to the society (Researchers Night, Science weeks, Open days, Ciência Viva, Summer University).