During the period 2000 – 2004, Maria KORDA studied Social Policy and Administration at the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH) (Greece), specializing in the field of EU Local Development and Employment Policies. She continued her postgraduate studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) (Belgium), obtaining a Master Degree (MA) in European Politics and Policies (2005) and a Master Degree (LL.M) in European Social Security (2006).
In parallel, she was working as a trainee in the Council of the European Union (EU) (DG GII Social Affairs/Unit 2A: Employment and Social Policy). In September 2006, she was appointed Ph.D. Researcher at the Law Faculty/Department of Social Law and Social Policy of Tilburg University (The Netherlands), where she obtained her Doctoral Degree (Ph.D. thesis title: The Role of International Social Security Standards: An In-Depth Study Through the Case of Greece, published by Intersentia (ISBN 978-1-78068-165-8)).
In January 2011, she started working for the European Commission (EC) under the Marie Curie Actions (MCAs) Human Resources and Mobility (HRM) Activity (6th Framework Programme). Since September 2012, she is working for the Science in Society (SiS) (7th Framework Programme) – Section: Science with and for Society (SWAFS) under the Horizon 2020 EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation – and, in particular, under the field of Science Education (SE) and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).