Professor Manuel João Costa brings institutional leadership and specialist expertise in assessment design from health professions education. As Head of the Medical Education Unit at Minho’s School of Medicine from 2004 to 2018, he was responsible for monitoring the educational quality of undergraduate medical education, faculty development and research in medical education. His work combines evidence-informed assessment with longitudinal evaluation of programme outcomes. 

He was part of the team behind Minho’s Master’s in Assessment in Health Professions Education and has also coordinated delivery of NBME’s International Foundations of Medicine examination at Minho. He is member of AMEE committee on Faculty Development and former member of the Learning and Teaching Steering Committee of the European University Association, FEBS Education Committee. He was one of the founders of IDEA-UMinho, the university’s centre for teaching and learning innovation.  He has authored over 80 internationally indexed scientific articles. He serves as associate editor of FEBS Open Bio and previously in BMC Medical Education and PLOS One. He brings to the Group a European perspective on programmatic and high-stakes assessment approaches, assessment validity in professional disciplines, and institutional strategy for educational innovation and change.