Vânia Freitas graduated in Biology, at University of Porto in 2003 and earned her PhD from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in 2011. After a post-doc research contract at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), she joined CIIMAR as a post-doc fellow working on the research line of Global Changes and Ecosystems Services. Her main research interest focus on combining empirical and theoretical tools, including bioenergetics modeling, to evaluate the importance of coastal areas as nursery habitats for fishes.