Sophie Sergent is a labour and employment law expert. She has worked for over 15 years in the Human Resources Department of Ifremer. As deputy director, she was in charge of researchers/engineers career development. Since 2008, she is European affairs officer at Ifremer, in charge of pan-European bilateral cooperation and research mobility schemes (Marie Curie actions, ERC). She is currently involved in a number of ERA-nets: MariFish, SEAS-ERA as well as the newly created ERA-net dedicated to Fisheries, Aquaculture and sea food processing, where she is responsible for the work packages related to common programmes and human capacity building. She is a member of the EU expert group responsible for the drafting of the report “Structural change in research institutions: Enhancing excellence, gender equality and efficiency in research and innovation.”