Karin Wall holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Geneva (1994) with Habilitation from the University of Lisbon (2010). She is currently a senior researcher at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa She has taught at graduate and post-graduate level since 1980, at ISCTE-IUL and the Instituto de Ciências Sociais, and has supervised twenty completed doctoral theses. Her main fields of specialization are the sociology of the family and gender relations, comparative analysis of social policies, and the sociology of migrations. Her research and publications focus on changes in the family and gender relations in Portugal and Europe, reconciling work and family life, paternity and the role of men in the family, solidarities and social networks throughout life, migrations and the transnational experience, developments in family policies in Europe, and the impact of crisis on children and family life. She is a founding member of the Portuguese Sociology Association (1985) and the European Sociology Association – ESA (1992). Between 2003 and 2007 she was head of the ESA’s Research Network on Sociology of Families and Private Life. She headed up research projects and networks both in Portugal and internationally, in particular in connection with the European Commission’s Framework Programmes and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT. From 2006 to 2016 she organised the thematic line Families, Lifestyles and School Education and the Research Group on Life Trajectories, Inequalities and Solidarities: Practices and Policies. She has been a member of various evaluation boards nationally and internationally, at the European Commission (6th Framework Programme), at the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, at the FCT, at the Swiss National Sciences Foundation and at the European Research Council. In 2015 she was head of the Social and Human Sciences panel at the ERC. In 2016 she was head of the Brainstorming Group on the Assessment of Science and Technology by the FCT (MCTES). Since 1994 she has worked as an international specialist in family policies in various European institutions and networks. She was a member of the European Observatory on National Family Policies. She was also a member of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Social Policies for Families and Children. She is a member of the International Network on Leave Policies and Research. In 2018 she was Visiting Professor at the University of Geneva (Alba Viotto Professorship). She was founder and head of the Families and Family Policies Observatory (OFAP) until 2018, and from 2108 to 2023 served as Director of the Instituto de Ciências Sociais.