The External Advisory Board is to provide objective advice and guidance on project methodology, quality assurance, progression and best practices, including highest compliance with ethical guidelines.
Contact person: Georgia Bayliss-Brown georgia@aquatt.ie
Role of External Advisory Board in COLUMBUS
• To provide expert advice and feedback on Knowledge Transfer activities within COLUMBUS
• To provide input into Work Package 8 “Legacy” particularly with regard to developing a comprehensive understanding of the barriers facing effective Knowledge Transfer of EU-funded projects
• To build relationships with stakeholders in Europe; and internationally where relevant
• To promote and enhance the external communication activities of the COLUMBUS project in order to ensure visibility on a political level; endorse COLUMBUS' authority on Knowledge Transfer; and, support the objective of highlighting the importance of marine and maritime research in Europe.
Profiles of External Advisory Board members:
Angel Borja, PhD in Marine Ecology, is Principal Investigator at AZTI, a private non-profit research foundation in Spain. He was previously Head of the Department of Oceanography and Head of the Marine Environment Area. His main work is making marine ecology research useful for policy-makers and managers; studying the effects of human activities on marine ecosystems; monitoring of marine waters and recovery after impact; and, developing methodologies to assess the marine status under European Directives. He is member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency, author of more than 180 peer-reviewed, and Editor or Member of the Editorial Board of seven international journals. He is also member of different scientific associations and serving as chair in numerous international conferences. Having participated in more than 100 European and international projects, he is Coordinator of DEVOTES (DEVelopment Of innovative Tools for understanding marine biodiversity and assessing good Environmental Status).
Darius Campbell is the Executive Secretary for the OSPAR Commission, an intergovernmental organisation. The work involves coordinating the commitments and actions of the Parties of the convention, with the aim to protect and conserve the North East Atlantic and its resources. Before taking up his post in 2012, Darius was a Deputy Director at the UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. His roles over the years included developing the UK’s National Climate Change Adaptation Programme; leading UK policy on marine environment and marine science; and, tackling international illegal fishing as well as leading on international oceans governance issues. Before joining the UK Civil Service, Darius worked in international development and research, in particular on agriculture in Jordan, Nigeria and India.
Jan-Stefan Fritz is Head of the Brussels Office of the German Marine Research Consortium (KDM), Vice-Chair of the European Marine Board and a Senior Research Associate in the Institute of Intercultural and International Studies at the University of Bremen. His work focuses on articulating strategies for scientific advice and science-policy relations as well as on building networks between the research, policy and business communities. Stefan represents KDM in a variety of EU projects and initiatives, including the AtlantOS and CSAOceans+ projects as well as the Operational Board of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences and has research interests in science-policy relations and global governance.
Simon Gerrard arrived at Southampton University in March 2014 as the Industry Liaison Manager in the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI). A key role of this post is to develop and enhance SMMI’s global distinctiveness. The principle method of achieving this is through stimulating greater levels of multi- and inter-disciplinary research between academics, researchers, business, government and other organisations. Prior to this post Dr Gerrard was a member of faculty in the School of Environmental at the University of East Anglia, Norwich from 1988-1999. Dr Gerrard’s research focused on environmental risk management. In 1999 he became the School’s first Business Innovation Manager responsible for creating an outreach and commercialisation platform. In 2002 Dr Gerrard established the Community Carbon Reduction (CRed) programme, the first of its kind in the UK. Through a few steps, this led to the creation of a university spin-out carbon management consultancy which, amongst other things, operated a range of low carbon investment funds.
Virginie Hart is currently the Monitoring and Assessment Programme Officer, for the Mediterranean Pollution Assessment and Control Programme (MED POL) at the United Nations Environment Programme, Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) in Athens, Greece. She has a background as a marine scientist/chemical oceanographer, specializing in open ocean nutrients and trace metals. For the last 15 years she has been supporting UNEP global and regional projects with a focus on environmental protection of marine and coastal ecosystems, in particular in Africa and the Mediterranean. In her current position, as of 2015, Virginie Hart is responsible for pollution indicators, data and assessments in the Mediterranean, coordinating also with UNEP/MAP’s regional activity centers and partners on all monitoring related to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols, implementation of the Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme, and the development of future Mediterranean State of Environment Reports.
Jan Reid Hole is the Dean of the Faculty of Bioscience and Aquaculture, Nord University (Norway), and Chairman of AquaTT. In a career spanning over 35 years, Reid has considerable aquaculture, industry, research and academic experience. With an educational background in Life Sciences, Reid’s early research interests and skill set led to his appointment to manage a task force to establish a permanent animal research centre, including a laboratory, in the north of Norway (Bodø). This research formed the basis of Reid's Ph.D. dissertation. Following his doctoral research, Reid was approached by Skretting AS and invited to become its R&D manager for its agriculture and aquaculture businesses. Reid subsequently became Nutreco’s International Aquaculture R&D manager and established Nutreco ARC AS, an R&D organisation known today as Skretting ARC AS. In 2000, Reid was appointed as Director of Technology and Development at Nutreco; and, later became Nutreco's Director of Food Safety, a key role that involved liaising with food safety managers in 22 countries. Following his desire to work in areas more specifically aligned with his interests, Reid left Nutreco in 2005 to establish his own consulting organisation - RH Consulting – where he has founded several commercial ventures. . In addition, Reid has served as a board member for many organisations including Nofima AS, AKVAFORSK AS, Pharmaq AS, Nutreco subsidiaries, Fishery Industries Advisory Board (FAO subsidiary), the Research Council of Norway (Bionær), the Norwegian Board of Technology and AquaTT. Through his current academic post, he continues to promote his long held interest in innovation and value creation from scientific research.
Mario Lopes dos Santos works as Deputy Head of Unit at the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) in Vigo, Spain. He is co-managing a team of 22 persons dealing with the coordination of Member States Joint Control Operations, in both European and International waters in the context of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs). He has a degree on general aquatic sciences, MSc on “Applied Fish Biology”. He has been working previously at the European Commission (Management of research programmes in fisheries, aquaculture and marine sciences both at DG RESEARCH and DG MARE) and as a researcher and lecturer in Portugal.
Fiona Regan is Professor in Chemical Science at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Water Institute. Fiona studied Environmental Science and Technology and later completed a PhD in analytical chemisty in 1994. Following postdoctoral research in optical sensing in DCU, in 1996 she took up a lecturing position at Limerick Institute of Technology. In 2002, Fiona joined the School of Chemical Sciences as a lecturer in analytical chemistry; in 2008, she became senior lecturer; and, in 2009, became the Beaufort Principal Investigator in Marine and Environmental Sensing. Fiona’s research focuses on environmental monitoring and she has special interest in priority and emerging contaminants as well as the establishment of decision support tools for environmental monitoring using novel technologies and data management tools. Her work includes the areas of separations and sensors (including microfluidics), materials for sensing and antifouling applications on aquatic deployed systems.
Stéphane Alain Riou is PhD graduated in Marine Biogeochemistry and Bachelor of Business Administration. After research works at Ifremer (French Institute for Sea exploitation), he worked for several consultancy firms in coastal environment, oceanography and economic development of maritime territories. Since 2010, he is Deputy Director of the Brittany Business & Innovation Sea Cluster (with more than 350 members and a project portfolio worth 720M€). He is expert for the European Commission (Horizon 2020: Member of the advisory group for SC2) and Administrator of the French-Norwegian Research Foundation.
Ricardo Serrão Santos MEP is a Member of the European Parliament since July 2014 and full Member of the Committee on Fisheries and the Interparliamentary Delegation EU-Canada. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Parliament Intergroups on "Seas, Islands, Rivers and Coastal Zones" and on "Climate change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development". Ricardo holds Doctorate Degree from the Universities of Liverpool and the Azores. Marine Researcher for 30 years, he has over 300 scientific papers and books published. In addition to his academic position at the University of the Azores, he is a member of the Scientific Council of the Oceanography Institute of Paris and President of EurOcean. Associated Editor of "Marine Biodiversity" and Speciality Chief Editor of "Frontiers in Marine Science/Deep-Sea Environments and Ecology". He has been a member of the scientific councils and chair of evaluation panels of the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Higher Education and Portuguese Delegate at ESFRI and the EC Committee of Research Infrastructures. Ricardo has also been the President of IMAR-Institute of Marine Research, and Pro-Rector and Director of the Department Oceanography and Fisheries at the University of the Azores. He has received several honourable mentions, prizes and awards, among which the Gift to the Earth by WWF in 2002. In 2012 he received the Autonomous Insignia of Recognition of the Azores. In 2013, he was knighted "Chevalier de l'Ordre de Saint Charles” by SAS Prince Albert II of Monaco. RSS was honoured as member of the "Portuguese Academy of Sciences" (Class of Sciences, Section of Biological Sciences) in 2009 and of the "Portuguese Navy Academy" (Class of Arts, Letters and Sciences) in 2008.
Iain Shepherd MBE has worked in the Marine Industry for 42 years, having studied at the Britannia Royal Naval College, US Naval Academy (Annapolis) and the German Naval College (Flensburg) and then serving for the first 21 years as a Seaman Officer in the Royal Navy during which time he gained specialist qualifications in Navigation, Under Water Warfare and Explosives Safety. Appointments included, fishery protection, navigating HMS BRILLIANT during the Falklands War, teaching posts at the School of Maritime Operations and staff jobs with responsibility for the standards of Under Water Warfare and Navigation in the Surface Flotilla. On leaving the service in 1993, he established a Consultancy working on a wide range of contracts, in the defence and maritime industries. He has also worked in Shipbuilding and has acted as a Trials Master for new build ships, and has been involved in the Oil & Gas Industry. Iain was the invited Author of the UN paper on Automated Port Entry and Exit for Shipping (APEX 2020). He was honoured with the MBE in 2015 for services to the marine sector.
Beverley Sherbon has recently joined Researchfish as the Impact and Evaluation Adviser. Prior to this Beverley was the Evaluation Programme Manager at the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) where she managed the MRC’s evaluation portfolio which involved providing evidence to assess the progress, productivity and impact of the MRC’s research, reporting on this to government and also funding and commissioning research into impact methodology. Beverley was in this role for 8 years, so was involved in the initial conception and development of Researchfish and its precursors. Prior to this Beverley has worked in knowledge management roles in other UK government departments and also the private sector, as well as being a biomedical researcher.
Jacky Wood is Deputy Director of the JPI Oceans Secretariat. Her responsibilities cover all aspects of the JPI Oceans Strategic research and innovation agenda, with particular interests in knowledge uptake, science policy interfaces and wider international engagement. Formerly at the UK's National Oceanography Centre as Head of the International and Strategic Partnerships Office and Executive Board member, Jacky engaged with the UK Government’s Marine Science Coordination Committee, helped establish the NOC Association and was responsible for international programmes and coordination initiatives including JPI Oceans and the European Marine Board. Prior to joining NOC, Jacky worked in the UK's Office of Science and Technology. She represented the UK in CREST (the forerunner to the European Research Area Committee) and on the Framework programme committees for Innovation and SMEs. Former roles included developing and directing grant giving knowledge exchange programmes in industrial biotechnology, in environmental technologies and in metrology. She is a physics graduate of the University of Southampton.
