Ángel Borja is PhD in Marine Ecologist at AZIT, Spain. His main work is making marine ecology research useful for policy-makers and managers, studying the effects of human activities on marine ecosystems, the recovery of marine systems after impact, protection and conservation of the ocean, effects of climate change on coasts and marine waters, monitoring and assessment of marine status, under European directives (i.e. Water Framework Directive; Marine Strategy Framework Directive), as well as integrative methods under the ecosystem-approach. The assessment methods he has developed, together with his team, are used worldwide, contributing to conserve and protect the ocean (e.g. AMBI, M-AMBI, AFI, NEAT, etc.). He was member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency (2013-2020) and several international organizations and EU projects, related to the ocean. Author of >315 papers, Highly Cited Researcher 2018-2022 (Web of Science). He is Chief Editor of Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability and Associate Editor of Continental Shelf Research, as well as member of the editorial board of three international journals (Marine Pollution Bulletin, Ecological Indicators and Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health). He has chaired/organized >50 international. Conferences/sessions, being key-note speaker in >100 international conferences. He has participated in more than 120 European and international projects, leading some of them (currently GES4SEAS). Roland Cormier is an Associate Professor at the Université de Moncton (Canada) and is actively pursuing research activities and lecturing at universities in Canada and Europe. He has more than 40 years’ experience in fisheries, seafood safety and environmental management with a particular focus on the effectiveness of risk based environmental management programs. After doing crustacean stock assessments at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, he worked in shellfish bio-toxin and seafood safety programs at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Subsequently, he worked at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Italy) on seafood HACCP-based risk management frameworks as well as a member of the Group of experts on risk management for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (Switzerland). After returning to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, he worked in freshwater and marine fish habitat protection, integrated oceans management and environmental assessment programs.Roland is currently pursuing effectiveness science of environmental regulatory frameworks at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and marine planning policy. He is also a guest scientist at the Institut für Küstensysteme - Analyse und Modellierung, Sozioökonomie des Küstenraumes, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, Germany. He is a co-chair of the working group for cumulative effects assessment for management for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Denmark). He is a member of the Canadian experts for the review of current regulatory frameworks being developed by the International Seabed Authority (Jamaica). Professor Michael Elliott is the Director of the Institute of Estuarine & Coastal Studies (IECS) and Professor of Estuarine and Coastal Sciences at the University of Hull, U.K. He is a marine biologist with wide experience in teaching, research, advisory and consultancy work in estuarine and marine aspects of ecological components and communities, and the impacts of human activities, as well as policy, governance, and management of estuaries and coasts. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Society of Biology. Mike has published widely, coauthoring/coediting 15 books and contributing to over 200 scientific publications. Mike has acted as an advisor on many marine and estuarine environmental matters for academia, industry, government, and statutory bodies in Europe and elsewhere. Mike is a past-president of the international Estuarine & Coastal Sciences Association (ECSA) and is also one of the four editors-in-chief of the international journal Estuarine, Coastal & Shelf Science and is on the editorial board of Marine Pollution Bulletin. He is the Sir Walter Murdoch Distinguished Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University, Australia, and also has adjunct professor and research positions at Klaipeda University (Lithuania), the University of Palermo (Italy), and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Grahamstown. In 2014, he was appointed an independent non-executive member of the UK Marine Science Coordinating Committee and member of the Science Advisory Board of Marine Scotland. In 2014, Mike was awarded the Laureate of the Honorary Winberg Medal of the Russian Hydrobiological Academic Society.
