Ana Colaço has been a researcher at the University of the Azores for over 20 years. She specialises in vulnerable deep-sea marine ecosystems such as hydrothermal vents and sponge aggregations. She works on trophic ecology and ecosystem functioning and conservation. She has extensive experience in international co-operation, participating in several projects dedicated to observatories; ecology and impacts in the deep sea and conservation of the North Atlantic. She is a member of FCT's Scientific Council for Natural and Environmental Sciences. She took part in the United Nations' Second World Ocean Assessment. She has been involved as an expert in several UN science-policy advisory panels (International Seabed Authority, CBD, EBSA and GBF 2030). She is currently co-chair of the ICES Deep Sea Ecology Working Group and is a Commissioner of the Sargasso Sea Commission. She has taken part in more than 40 oceanographic cruises with submersibles.