Sandra Pais is a researcher and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Algarve, the Algarve Biomedical Center- Research Institute and the Comprehensive Health Research Center of the NOVA Medical School of Lisbon.

For the last 25 years she has been dedicated to studying functional decline associated with ageing, and non-pharmacological issues, such as exercise approaches to rheumatic disease.

She has integrated several task forces of the European Alliance of Association for Rheumatology, being co-author of the 2018 Guidelines for Physical Activity for inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis, and the 2019 recommendations for non-physician health professionals for the management of osteoporotic fractures.

She has been working on the integration of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing since 2013, and has been coordinating the four star reference site Algarve Active Ageing since its recognition by the European Commission in 2019. Along with the 5 other EiP-AHA references in Portugal, she has created the National Portuguese Network on Active and Healthy Aging- “REPENSA”, which has delivered a National Action plane for Active and Healthy Ageing to the National Minister of Work, Solidarity and Social Security.

Professor Pais has coordinated several national and international projects and is currently conducting a Clinical Trail on the effects of an exercise programme on patients with osteoarthritis and cardiovascular risk and/or after acute myocardial infarction, as well as a cross sectional study “Aging, Sarcopenia and Frailty Syndrome in the Elderly”.