Nuno Crato

Nuno Crato, GCIP, GCHP, Research Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, in CEMAPRE/ISEG, University of Lisbon, president of Iniciativa Educação, an organisation dedicated to fostering student education, member of the French government Scientific Council for National Education (CSEN), and visiting senior research scientist at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, works on stochastic models, time series applications on financial and social problems, and statistical data- based evaluation of policy measures, namely education. He has published extensively on econometrics and statistics and worked on education policy analysis.

He was President of the Portuguese Mathematical Society (2004–2010) and director of the International Institute of Forecasters (2016–2020). He has been a vocal voice in educational debates, publishing critical articles and books on education, advocating a structured curriculum, external evaluation of students, and a better content-knowledge training of teachers. He is founding organizer of the Lisbon Economics and Statistics of Education conference series. From 2011 to 2015, he was the Education and Science Minister of Portugal. Raised mandatory schooling from nine to 12 grade years, introduced English as mandatory subject starting at third grade, reduced the dropout rate from c. 25% to 13.7%, improved retention rates, and Portuguese students achieved the best results ever in international surveys, namely PISA and TIMSS.

A prolific science writer, some of his books are translated and published in various countries, including the U.S., U.K., Spain, Italy, and Brazil, namely his Figuring It Out (Springer 2010). He recently wrote Aprender, in Portuguese (2025, Lisbon, FFMS) and Apología del Libro de Texto: Cómo Escribir, Elegir y Utilizar un Buen Manual, in Spanish (2024, Madrid, Narcea), coauthored Developing Curriculum for Deep Thinking: The Knowledge Revival, (2025, Springer), coedited Improving National Education Systems After COVID-19, with Harry A. Patrinos (Springer 2024), edited Improving a Country’s Education: PISA 2018 Results in 10 Countries (Springer 2021), and coedited Data-Driven Policy Impact Evaluation (Springer 2019) with Paolo Paruolo. He has been consultant and guest speaker for governments and education organizations in Africa (Cape Verde, Mozambique, Morrocco), Europe (France, Georgia, Poland, Slovenia), South America (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina), Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Emirates), Australia, and other regions.

For his work, he has received prizes from the European Mathematical Society (2003) and the European Union (2007). He was awarded the presidential medals of Commander (2008) and Great-Cross (2015) of Prince Henry, and Great-Cross (2022) of Public Instruction orders.