I have worked in 3 research groups from different countries and correlated fields, to bring together complementary skills, knowledge and resources needed for my evolving research questions and plan. In the dept of Geology & Geochemistry in Spain (UAM 2007-13), I studied the prevention and diffusion of pollutants from waste through earth materials. In the dept of Chemistry in Belgium (KUL 2014-17), I studied the recovery of critical metals from waste and their (challenging) chemical analyses. In the department of Civil & Structural Engineering in UK (TUOS 2018-20), I studied the design of engineering works to avoid waste pollution. In the last 2 years I was the PI of a Marie S. Curie Individual project (0.18 M€, TUOS), and between 2008-18 I was (1) the internal leader of: 5 coordinated international competitive projects and 2 research contracts with Shell Global and ENRESA (1.5 M€ internally, 17.4 M€ consortium), and a researcher of other 5 research projects (3 M€ internally, 6 M€ consortium). I have co-supervised 2 PhD completed in <4 years (9 JCR and 2 supervisors) and 1 PhD with 3 supervisors. I have trained 5 technicians (UAM, TUOS), supervised 3 postgraduate research stays (FUTO, Imo Afrik Ltd, NTUA) and mentored several fellows (UoM, TUDelft). I have lectured 500 h on Geology, Waste management, Water Quality and Groundwater remediation at bachelor's and master's level in UK, Germany and Spain. I was nationally accredited as Profesor Contratado Doctor (2015) and as Distinguished Researcher I3 certificate (2019). I have developed leadership skills in 2018-2020 through: (1) coordinating a 2-year collaboration between 3 research groups (Geotechnical Engineering, Groundwater Protection and Construction Engineering Groups) that had not worked together before, (2) receiving The Researcher As Manager endorsement by ILM (UK benchmark of high quality, leadership and management training) and (3) being awarded twice with a Marie S. Curie Individual Fellowship in the area of Environmental and Geosciences: first in 2016 as postdoctoral fellow and second in 2021 as supervisor of the postdoctoral fellow (95-97% score, 92-94% retained list threshold, 12-13% success rate, from which 43% women). I had institutional responsibilities such as representative of Teaching and Researcher Staff in Training (UAM 2008-13), coordinator of the Agreement Collaboration for visiting students from Spelman College (USA) to UAM (2012-13), or co-founder of the Researchers Forum at TUOS, only 17 months after my arrival (2019). I became an independent researcher with 67% of my publications without my PhD supervisor and my last project as PI without involving any of my previous supervisors. For all this, I am a multidisciplinary & independent researcher, the two main excellence criteria for successful ERC grants. I have >40 conference communications and 58 publications, incl. 22 JCR articles, 8 teaching publications, a book (sole author, Lulu Press Inc. 2014), and two book chapters (invitation, main author, Taylor&Francis Group, 2019 and Springer Nature, 2021). I have high internationalization via international appointments (3), secondments (5), conferences (24) and membership of scientific societies (3), having collaborated with >20 institutions and 40 co-authors (34% female) from different sectors and disciplines. I support science as associate editor (Heliyon, Elsevier), topic editor (Minerals, MDPI), jury member (ChemCYS Conference 2016, PhD defence 2020), organizer of international symposiums (VIII SRUK 2020-21), scientist engaged in politics, journal reviewer (3/yr) and science disseminator (2/yr).