Ana has worked in the creative and cultural sectors for over 25 years. Before joining City University London as Course Director of the MA in Arts Management in 1998 she worked with a variety of cultural sector organisations and consulted for a wide range of cultural organisations in the UK.

Ana Gaio has been involved in numerous research and applied research projects in the cultural sector - she was, for example, part of the research team that produced the 2001 edition of the Creative Industries Mapping Document for the Department of Culture Media and Sport and was responsible for a number of chapters; and was also involved in the first phase of a £3m EU-Equal funded City University led project 'Celebrating Enterprise' exploring the potential for festivals and community events to play a greater role in economic development. More recently she carried out a study on the motivation of individual donors (small gifts) to give to the arts for Arts & Business.

Ana's doctoral research is concerned with the formation of public policy (cultural policy) in the European Union. Other research interests include cultural policy making; the management of creative/cultural organisations especially how business models develop in micro- and small-sized organisations; organisational performance and evaluation; and organisation capacity and related concerns.