Lara Maria Guedes Gonçalves Costa

Lara is an intern in the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. She conducts research on military spending in Africa and the Americas, supports the collection and analysis of the MILEX databases and contributes to the programme’s initiatives.

Lara is in the final semester of the Erasmus Mundus International Master in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies (IMSISS) – University of Glasgow (Scotland), Dublin City University (Ireland), and Charles University (Czechia). She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and Area Studies (IRAS) from Jagiellonian University (Poland), specializing in International Security. In Poland, she was awarded “Best Foreign Student in Poland” by the Perspektywy Education Foundation.

Lara is also a mentee of the 2023-2024 Young Women in Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (YWNPD) Mentorship Programme, organized in the framework of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium (EUNDPC).

Previously, Lara worked as a research intern at the International Center for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Estonia. She also worked as a project assistant at The Kosciuszko Institute and as an account analyst at IBM BTO in Poland.