Professor Alberto Basset
Alberto Basset is full Professor of Ecology and Pro-Rector for Sustainability at the University of Salento and Director of the Lecce seat of the Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems of the National Research Council. He is member of the Executive Board of LifeWatch ERIC, the European eScience Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, being also Italian representative in the General Assembly, member of the EMSO ERIC Advisory Committee and of the National Scientific Committee for the Antarctic; he has been member of the Advisory Board of many international initiatives and Projects. His main research interests are in biodiversity organization and ecosystem functioning and services, with a focus on transitional waters and other types of aquatic ecosystems, being author of more than 150 papers in ecological journals on these topics. In the European research community, he is member of the Council and former President of the European Ecological Federation, current President of the Euro-Mediterranean Federation, former President and member of the Board of the Italian Society of Ecology. He is currently serving as Associate Editor of Frontiers in Marine Ecosystem Ecology and Board member of other international scientific journals.

Dr Graham John Pierce
Graham John Pierce is a Professor in School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen (presently an honorary position) and Scientific Investigator of Fisheries Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (Consejo Superor de Investigaciones Cientificas). He is/has been Co-chair in the ICES Working Group on Cephalopod Fisheries and Life History (2017-2022), and in the ICES Working Group on Marine Mammal Ecology (2015-2017), as well as President of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC/2009-2012). He has co-ordinated several EU-funded collaborative Projects including “CetAMBICion” (research on Cetacean bycatch, 14 institutions, 2021-2023), “ECOSUMMER” Marie Curie Training Site (research training network for “early stage researchers”, comprising 8 EU Institutions, 2006-09); “CEPHSTOCK” Concerted Action (network, 21 institutions, 2002-05, on Cephalopod biology and fisheries); “BIOCET” Research project (7 institutions, on contaminant bioaccumulation in Cetaceans, 2001-05). He has also participated in numerous European collaborative Projects since 1990, including the recent PARASITE (PArasite Risk ASsessment with Integrated Tools in EU Fish production value chains, 2013-2015 and MISTICSEAS III (on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive in Macaronesia, 2019-2021). His main research interests focus mainly in marine biology and ecology, conservation and fisheries, including assessment, management and governance options for sustainable use of living marine resources, particularly in relation to Cephalopods and Cetaceans. Recent work includes statistical modelling of life history parameters, distribution and abundance of fish, cephalopods, marine mammals, and nematodes, development of niche models, prediction of climate change effects and applications to indicators for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. He has been author of more than 290 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, co-editor in several books, and has presented or contributed to more than 460 conference talks and posters in these topics.

Dr Paolo Guidetti
Paolo Guidetti has a university degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Genoa (Italy) and a PhD in ‘Fundamental Ecology’ at the University of Lecce (Italy). Presently is a Research Director at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn-National Institute of Marine Biology, Ecology and Biotechnology. Formerly he has been full Professor of Ecology at the University Côte d’Azur (UCA, Nice, France; 2012-2020), Director of the ECOSEAS laboratory (UMR 3729) – CNRS-UCA (2016-2020), a Researcher in Zoology at the University of Salento (Italy; 2007-2012) and a visiting scientist in 2003 and 2004 at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego, USA). His main research interests focus mainly on Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Fish Ecology and small-scale Fisheries Management. He has been Principal Investigator or WP Leader within more than 50 National and International Projects funded by public and private bodies: EU, Italian Ministries and Agencies, MPAs, Foundations, Private Companies. Professor Guidetti has been author of more than 150 papers in ISI peer-reviewed scientific journals (including ‘Nature’ and ‘Science’).

Professor Samuel Martin
Samuel Martin is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen and director of the Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre (SFIRC) at the University of Aberdeen. His research group examines aspects of fish health, immunology and nutrition that is directly relevant to aquaculture industry. He is Co-I on the UKRI funded Aquaculture Research Collaborative Hub –UK, that is identifying priority areas for future research for both finfish and shell-fish aquaculture. Professor Martin’s lab has been at the forefront of molecular biological approaches for the analysis of health and nutrition in both Atlantic Salmon and Rainbow Trout, with an emphasis on identifying differentially expressed genes related to immune function. The lab group uses a variety of genomics approaches to address key traits relating to improving the performance of fish in culture and has funding from UKRI, EU, SAIC and a number of industrial funded Projects. Professor Martin has been the author of more than 120 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and several chapter books in aquaculture topics.

Dr. Joaquim Garrabou
Joaquim Garrabou is a Marine Conservation Ecologist. He holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Barcelona (Spain). He is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences-CSIC in Barcelona (Spain) and the co-ordinator of the Marine Biodiversity Conservation Group MedRecover (www.medrecover.org). The ultimate objective of his research is to enhance science based management strategies to inform adaptation plans of coastal areas as well as the sustainable use of marine resources. He is particularly interested in promoting the role of Marine Protected Areas as nature based solution face to climate change. In this framework he is the coordinator the T-MEDNet network (www.t-mednet.org) devoted to track climate change impacts in the Mediterranean and the Marine Citizen Science platform Observadores del Mar (www.observadores delmar.es). He has been the author of more than 110 papers in peer review ecological journals on these topics.