The Advisory Board is an independent body consisting of selected high level experts and stakeholders who are not partners in the COMMON SENSE project, but are willing to advise and support the Project Steering Committee on annual basis.

Main role of the Advisory Board:

• To attend four online meetings of the External Advisory Board and contribute with advice and suggestions to improve the project’s final results.
• To build bridges between the project team and stakeholders and organization when necessary.
• To provide key information relating to their areas of expertise and to ensure this is reflected in the deliverables concerned.

Members of the Advisory Board of the COMMON SENSE project

• Dr. Enrique Álvarez: Operational oceanography expert. PhD. Physics.Head of the Operational Oceanography Department of Puertos del Estado (State Ports), Spain.. Member of EuroGOOS. Co-author of PORTUS, the new oceanographic information system developed by State Ports of Spain (http://www.qualitasremos.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2012_CATALOGO_QR_IS-PORTUS_AF.pdf).
• Prof. Dr. Paulo A.L.D. Nunes: international expert in Environmental Economics.He has been working in the field of economics of biodiversity and valuation of ecosystem services since the mid 90s. He graduated from the Katholieke Universitat Leuven with a Master of Science in Economics cum laude and was awarded his Ph.D. from the same institution on the Economics of Environment in 1999. Doctoral dissertation published as a monograph by Edward Elgar. Paulo A.L.D. Nunes is the Scientific Coordinator of the Policy and Experts Committee of the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystems (WAVES), World Bank, and (visiting) senior economist at the Institut de Ciències del Mar, Barcelona.
• Dr. Paul Connolly is Director of Fisheries Ecosystems Advisory Services (FEAS) at the Marine Institute in Galway, Ireland. During 2011 and 2012, Paul worked closely with the Irish Government’s Marine Co-ordination Group (MCG) that developed an Integrated Marine Plan for Ireland (www.ouroceanwealth.ie - see Harnessing our Ocean Wealth). Paul was elected President of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in October 2012. Paul is currently working with the ICES community on the renewal of the ICES Strategic Plan (2014 to 2018).
• Dr. Stephen James Malcolm: (B.Sc. (Hons.), Ph.D.).Chief Marine Environment Advisor Responsible for CEFAS advice to Government on marine environmental issues and represents the UK (on behalf of Defra) at OSPAR, EC and International Committees. Lead specialist on marine eutrophication, monitoring and assessment and co-ordinates technical aspects of Marine Strategy Framework Directive implementation. National Leader in the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy. Delivered Charting Progress 2 the latest assessment of the state of UK seas.
• Dr. Anne Marie O’Hagan: Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre, University College Cork, Ireland.Ph.D. in Coastal Studies from University of Ulster (2002) on the legal and institutional framework for Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Ireland: with special reference to coastal protection. She is working on the law, policy and environmental aspects of ocean energy development funded by Science Foundation Ireland’s Charles Parsons Research Award for Ocean Energy. She has worked on numerous EU projects including the COEXIST project on interactions in coastal waters, the SOWFIA project on environmental impacts of wave energy development and the IMCORE project on climate change adaptation.
• Prof. Dr. Fiona Regan: PhD in Analytical Chemistry. Director of the Marine Institute Smart Bay project and is the Marine Institute Prof. of Marine and Environmental Sensing at DCU (Beaufort Sensors programme). Fiona Regan, Associate Professor in Environmental Sensing since 2009, established the Marine and Environmental Sensing Technology Hub (MESTECH), DCU in 2010. She is graduated in Environmental Science and Technology at the Institute of Technology in Sligo. Her research is in the area of separations and sensors, materials for sensing and anti-biofouling applications on aquatic deployed systems, including novel sensors and sensor networks and decision support systems. Fiona is Director of MESTECH and coordinates the Marine ICT SmartBay research under PRTLI V and the International SmartOcean Graduate Enterprise Initiative (ISGEI).
• Dr. Silvia Torres López: PhD in Marine Sciences, operational oceanography. Marine Technologies Unit Coordinator in the Technological Centre of the Sea (CETMAR). She is a senior advisor in sensor operational issues and field performance and responsible for the development of marine technology in different projects. She is working on marine environmental monitoring and installation and maintenance of meteo-oceanographic observation networks. CETMAR is responsible for the design, installation and maintenance of the RAIA Observatory (observation network ).
• Mr. Martin Kramp: Technical Coordinator of the JCOMM in situ Observing Platform Support Centre (JCOMMOPS) of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), JCOMMOPS provides coordination at the international level for oceanographic and marine observations from drifting buoys, moored buoys in the high seas, ships of opportunity and sub-surface profiling floats. JCOMMOPS operates under the auspices of the Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM)).