Virginijus Sinkevičius is the Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, at the European Commission. Mr Sinkevičius was from 2017 to 2019 Minister of Economy, and before he was leading the Committee of Economy at the Parliament of Lithuania. Mr. Sinkevičius was elected to the Parliament in October 2016. Prior, he was a Team Lead for Regulatory Affairs at Invest Lithuania. Mr. Sinkevičius holds BA in International Relations and Affairs from Aberystwyth University and Master‘s degree in European International Affairs from Maastricht University.

Ana Cristina Cardoso studied marine biology, concluding a ‘Licenciatura’ (long cycle academic degree) in marine biology and fisheries, and a Ph.D. in marine biology. She is since 1995 a scientific officer at the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC). Since then, she has contributed and coordinated several JRC research and science-policy interface projects in the fields of freshwater, marine ecology and biodiversity. Since 2012, she coordinates the European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN), an initiative of the JRC, and carries out research and scientific support to EU policy on the thematic of alien species.

Anastasia is an educator, specialising in Environmental Education and working at the Environmental Organisation iSea, since 2016. Anastasia was directing the Aquatic Litter Department of iSea, coordinating the implementation of coastal and underwater cleanups and conduction of awareness-raising campaigns for engaging local stakeholders around Greece on fighting aquatic litter. At the same time, she created the aquatic litter database of iSea which currently is the largest in the country. Since 2018, Anastasia is coordinating the “Human and Aquatic Ecosystem” Department of the organisation, designing and implementing projects aimed at the active involvement of the public in environmental protection. She is responsible for projects related to the promotion of the active participation and education of citizens for the sustainable management of the environment. Her main research interests are related to issues of environmental education and ethics, as well as environmental knowledge and perceptions of citizens on different environmental topics. At the same time, she is representing iSea within the Greek “Network for the Protection of the Marine Environment” and “Beyond Plastic Med” community.

Dr. Cathal Gallagher has 25 years of experience in various roles in the public and private sector. As the Head of Research and Development, over the past 14 years, Cathal has led a team of researchers that focus on the development of an evidence base, to support management and policy development, directed and the conservation and protection of Ireland’s fish species and the habitat they occupy. He works across agencies and government departments to support Ireland’s efforts in delivery of commitments associated with the Water Framework Directive (WFD), Habitats Directive, national biodiversity plans among other environmental conservation programmes. He is passionate about the delivery of research and policy, to mitigate against the challenges that we face in the management of our shared natural inland fisheries environment. He is an active member of several national steering and advisory committees, working closely with various state agencies, government departments and stakeholders in addressing the challenges relating to conservation, protection and management of our natural eco-systems. Cathal has international organisational experience having acted as Chair of European Inland Fisheries Advisory and Aquaculture Commission (EIFAAC), which is a regional fisheries organisation (38 country members) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, where he worked to support the development and implementation of a new organisational strategy.He represents the EU on the International Atlantic Salmon Research Board and Chairs the NASCO (North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation) jurisdictional salmon conservation Implementation Plan (IP) review committee. Cathal acts as Chair of the North South Standing Scientific Committee on Inland Fish a body supported by the North South Ministerial Council. He is also a member of the Northern Ireland Drainage Council where he acts as an expert advisor.

Eoin has been working in the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission for 10 years. He is currently the deputy head of unit in the fisheries policy and structural funding coordination unit. Previously he worked in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in the field of fisheries and aquaculture. He has a doctorate in geography and computer science.

Working with Canadian herring fishermen in the late 90s, I realised that when science is not well connected with reality, it risks not being as helpful as it could be. Ever since, I’ve had a keen interest in building stronger collaboration among scientists, fishermen and managers, so welcomed the exciting opportunity to join the SPFA in 2016 as their first Chief Scientific Officer. My role involves bringing science to industry and industry to science, where I facilitate industry’s contribution to national and international scientific arena so that it can be used to enhance the knowledge base underpinning stock assessments and research on changes in the marine environment. It draws upon my 17 years’ experience at Cefas working on fisheries acoustics, investigating changes in the North Sea food-web, ecosystem modelling and leading the EU-wide science-industry collaborative research projects GAP1 & 2 (www.gap2.eu). I’m an active contributor to the International Council for Exploration of the Sea as an expert or chair.

Working as a professor in Ecosystem Based fisheries management at DTU Aqua, my work is centred around detecting ecosystem changes linked to human impacts and providing management advice to achieve ecosystem objectives. It includes work on indicators related to fish stock development and health, MSY and other management objectives, pelagic ecosystems, predator and prey interactions, species distribution and sensitive species. I have made it a specific focus that indicators are scientifically justifiable, reflect wider societal objectives and are operational in a cooperative management setting. To achieve this, I work with representatives from science, industry, NGO, managers and policy makers, drawing on data on knowledge supplied by both science, citizens and fishers and trying to overcome barriers between these groups that hinder the use of data not collected by scientists.

Dr Nathalie Steins is a social scientist at Wageningen Marine Research (the Dutch marine institute) since 2013. Core part of her work is the research collaboration with the capture and culture fisheries towards sustainable management. Nathalie has been involved in fisheries in various roles the past 25 years. She studied multi-use conflicts in coastal fisheries as part of a research position at the University of Portsmouth (UK). She worked as a policy officer with a Dutch fishing industry organization. In this role was closely involved both in the establishment of the EU’s North Sea Regional Advisory Council and the first steps towards research collaboration between the industry and science. She then worked 5 years for the Marine Stewardship Council. In her current role, she was also member of the ICES Advisory Committee (2015-19). What Nathalie loves about her job is being a bridge between fishers and natural scientists.