Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa is a Consultant Psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation, and a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London and at the Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar Institute at the University of Porto. She is enthusiastic in making the most of technology to connect people. In her doctoral research, she explored social relationships between people with psychosis and volunteers in 3 European countries (Portugal, Belgium and the United Kingdom) and through different formats (face-to-face or digitally). She developed an intervention "Phone Pal" to remotely connect patients and volunteers through a smart-phone, that she tested in a feasibility trial. She also has clinical and research experience in Africa, where she was screening alcohol, smoking and other substances involvement, in primary and mental health care users in Luanda, while studying for the International Master on Mental Health Policy and Services at the New University of Lisbon supported by the WHO. She is past president of the European Federation of Psychiatric trainees (EFPT), and has been the Principal Investigator and study manager of the EFPT Brain Drain Study, researching mobility experiences of psychiatric trainees in 33 European countries. She is passionate about supporting and empowering early career psychiatrists, and has been the Chair of the Early Career Psychiatrists Section at the World Psychiatric Association and Chair of the Early Career Psychiatrists Committee at the European Psychiatric Association.