Inês Campos is a sociologist and researcher entangled with questions of justice, imagination, and transformation in the context of climate action and energy transitions. Holding a PhD in Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Development Policies from the University of Lisbon, her work dances across the seams of interdisciplinary social sciences, sustainability, energy research, and data analytics—always with an eye toward the social fabric: citizens, collectives, and the co-creation of more just futures. Inês coordinated the EU Horizon 2020 project PROSEU (Mainstreaming Prosumers in the Energy Union) and currently leads the Horizon Europe project INCITE-DEM (Inclusive Citizenship in a Changing World: Co-Designing for Democracy). With partners across Europe, she has co-developed the “Democracy Labs”—experimental spaces that cultivate democratic innovation and participatory sustainability governance.

She was also a principal researcher in JustWind4All, exploring participatory governance in wind energy transitions, and SEEDS, which weaves social-ecological and socio-technical insights into inclusive energy pathways. A commitment to socio-ecological transformation guides her scholarship—less as a destination, more as a living, unfolding question. Inês enjoys moving between data analytics (computational social science, relational mapping) and participatory methods (living labs, democracy labs), cultivating research as a practice of invitation—toward broader engagement in climate mitigation, energy justice, and the reimagining of possible worlds. Previously, she led the Socio-Ecological Transition subgroup at the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon. Now based at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), she is currently exploring alternative imaginaries to dominant growth-driven paradigms, particularly in an era marked by democratic backsliding and planetary challenges. 

Field of Activity: Sociology, in the research area of Sustainable Futures

Key-words: narratives, imaginaries, sustainability transitions, post-growth futures, participation