João Martins has been with the United Nations University (UNU-EGOV) since 2017.
João Martins is a Senior Research Associate at UNU-EGOV and an Invited Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Minho. His research has been published in international journals such as Government Information Quarterly, Social Science Computer Review, Information Economics and Policy, and Economics and Politics. He has also published in the fields of public economics and macroeconomics and served as a peer reviewer for several international journals. João has been a member of the Programme Committee for leading digital government conferences, including ICEGOV and dg.o.
He has experience in consultancy and capacity-building projects funded by or carried out in partnership with UNDP, the Agency for Administrative Modernization of Portugal, the Kaizen Institute, the Digital Government Authority of Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Qatar, the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development of Egypt, and the Islamic Development Bank. His work has focused on digital government assessments, benchmarking and monitoring, digital transformation and digital governance strategies, and international good practices and awards.
Before working and researching on digital government, João worked on research projects funded by the European Social Fund and the Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos on topics such as term limits, local governance and finance, voter turnout, and dual training systems.
He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minho. His thesis was titled Essays on the Socioeconomic Impacts of Digital Government.