Gert Verreet is a policy officer in the Flanders Department of Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI), working in the Research Division focusing on environmental sciences and Flemish involvement, including intra-regional, intra-federal, intra-EU, ... duties, such as support to work of VLIZ (www.vliz.be), EU developments such as JPI-Oceans and international environmental research infrastructures (ESFRI SWG ENV). He is also a member of the Flemish Committee for UNESCO and oversees funding for projects under the UNESCO/Flanders Fund-in-Trust for the support of UNESCO's activities in the field of Science (implemented under UNESCO IOC, IHP and MAB programmes). Previously he was a Deputy Secretary of the OSPAR Commission, a position he occupied in 1995-2001 and 2011-2014. The OSPAR Commission deals with the protection and conservation of the marine environment in the North-East Atlantic under the OSPAR Convention, 1992. He worked for the Flanders Department of Environment, Nature and Energy (LNE) in 2001-2005 (project on involvement of target groups in policy development) and 2009-2011 (international unit, focus on greening of the economy). In 2005-2009 he was – as a seconded national expert – a marine policy officer at the European Commission, DG Environment, acting as desk officer for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, strongly involved with interfacing between the (environmental) marine strategy and maritime policy. Before that his occupations include working for the Belgian federal marine scientific service ‘MUMM’ and researcher at Leuven University where he had received training as an (environmental) geologist (graduated 1983). On the scientific front, he recently co-edited the book ‘Chemical Marine Monitoring – Policy Framework and Analytical Trends’, with Philippe Quevauviller and Patrick Roose (published by J Wiley in 2011).