Niall McDonough is Executive Scientific Secretary of the European Marine Board and a member of the senior management team at the European Science Foundation. The Marine Board is Europe’s foremost marine science policy think-tank, delivering strategy and foresight to advance European research focused on seas and oceans. Niall is originally trained as a marine biologist, with research interests in aquaculture, fisheries and marine resource management. He holds a first class honours degree from Trinity College Dublin and a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast. He has previously held management roles with the Environmental Change Institute at NUI Galway, and the Centre for Marine Resources and Mariculture at Queen’s University Belfast, attracting significant research funding to both centres and coordinating a number of national and international research projects. While with Queen’s he provided scientific advice to the Northern Ireland Government and chaired the Northern Ireland Review of Inshore Fisheries in 2005-2006. From 2007 to 2009 he worked with the Irish Marine Institute’s International Co-operation Programme, developing Ireland’s international collaborative research efforts in marine science and technology. As Head of the Marine Board Secretariat, Niall oversees the implementation of all Marine Board strategic activities and projects, including management of the Secretariat staff and the Marine Board budget. The role involves the coordination and delivery of high quality policy briefings, position papers and vision documents to influence European and national seas and oceans research strategy and programming. Niall also leads the Board’s involvement as Work Package Leader in several FP7 coordination actions (MARCOM+, EMAR2RES, CLAMER, SEAS-ERA and MARINEBIOTECH CSA) which work to develop the European Research Area for marine science and technology. Niall represents the Board on several Advisory Boards and external panels and has responsibility to communicate with major European and international partners on behalf of the Board’s 35 Member Organizations.