Ricardo is a postgraduate Researcher at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), participating in the Business, Markets and the State, as well as the Participation, Inclusion and Social Change research clusters.

He is currently undertaking research on the role the social and solidarity economy as a catalyst for development and as an alternative model of organising economic relations within society, under the supervision of Dr Jo Howard and Dr Anabel Marín. His research is devoted to a comparative study of social and solidarity economy initiatives in Portugal and Cape Verde. He is particularly interested in the potential of the social and solidarity economy to emancipate social actors from profit-maximization models and towards participatory democracy, redistributive justice, and sustainability.

Since 2022 he has worked in the due diligence space and currently holds the position of Senior Analyst at SET Advisory, a due diligence firm based in London. In his work, Ricardo provides institutions, law firms, consumer goods manufacturers, and international consultancies with integrity, political and market risk investigations, as well as due diligence investigations and analyses in the ESG and art spaces.

Ricardo holds an MSc in Development Studies from The London School of Economics and Political Science with a specialism in African Development. His master’s dissertation, titled “Locating African Agency in Chinese Resource-financed Infrastructure Deals: A Case Study Comparing Angola and Ghana”, entailed a comparative case study with the aim of identifying the factors that enhance African agency in resource-financed infrastructure lending to explain why some countries have more success at achieving better terms and local linkages outcomes in resource-for-infrastructure deals. He also holds a Bachelor’s (Licenciatura Bologna) in Languages, Literature and Culture from Universidade de Lisboa.