Francisco Vilhena da Cunha is the Head of the Strategy and Development Unit at CEiiA.
Previously, he was Head of Aeronautical Programmes at EEA – Empresa de Engenharia Aeronáutica; General Manager of the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) – Portugal; Advisor of the Secretary of State of Science, Technology, and Higher Education in Portugal, being responsible for corporate R&D; Coordinator of the areas of Intelligence, Aeronautics, Defence and Offsets at INTELI, a private-public think tank; and Expert for the offsets area of the International Programme of Defence and Safety of the NGO Transparency International; he has also worked for Portuguese companies in Business Development and Competitive Intelligence.
During this period he represented Portugal in several discussion groups of the FP7 of the European Commission, in the areas of Aeronautics, Space, and Safety. It has published papers about the risks of corruption in military offsets and the measures to prevent their transparency.
Francisco has a degree in Aerospace Engineering by Instituto Superior Técnico and is a researcher at IN+, also at Instituto Superior Técnico, in the framework of his PhD programme in Engineering and Public Policy. His research area is related with the role of public policy in the industrialisation processes.