As of September 2022, Delilah Al Khudhairy is the Director for Maritime Policy and Blue Economy in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE). The mission of the Directorate is to drive forward maritime policy and to support and stimulate the creation of jobs, growth and investment to unlock the economic potential of the sea. The Directorate also provides analyses on economic and social aspects of maritime affairs and fisheries management and has a leading role in the work in DG MARE on the Better Regulation Agenda, including on public consultations and Impact Assessments. 

Prior to this, Delilah Al Khudhairy was the Director of the directorates for Competences as well as Strategy, Work Programme and Resources at the European Commission’s in-house Science and Knowledge service, the Joint Research Centre. Delilah graduated with a first class honours B.Sc (Eng.) and Ph.D degrees in Materials Science Engineering from London University. She was employed at British Gas PLC, UK, before joining the European Commission in 1990.

Dr. Enrique Alvarez Fanjul is the Technical Coordinator of the OceanPrediction Decade Collaborative Center, at Mercator Ocean International. He has an experience of 33+ years in operational oceanography. He has coordinated several national and European projects. He is the author of more than 100 peer reviewed publications. 

Amongst others coordination and management activities, the following can be mentioned: Mercator Ocean International Management Board, MONGOOS (as co-chair), ETOOFS (as co-chair), EuroGOOS Board, scientific committees of PLOCAN and SOCIB, and management boards of the Ports of Alicante and Pasajes. 

He accumulates extensive experience on Ocean observing, such as the direction of the Deep-Water Buoy Network of Puertos del Estado. He is the founder of the HF radar network at the same institution.  

Dr. Alvarez Fanjul has extensive experience in the world of ocean data management and sharing, being the main designer of the Portus web service and Imar App, the main sources of ocean data at Spain in terms of number of users. 

In the world ocean forecasting, the following experiences can be highlighted: main programmer and developer of the Nivmar national storm surge forecasting system, coordination of ESEOO project to develop the Spanish current forecast system after Prestige event, and coordination of the SAMOA projects to develop high resolution wave, current and wind forecasts in 46 Spanish major ports. He was also coordinator of the IBI-MFC, part of the Copernicus Marine service. 

He has managed more than 50 MoU and contracts prepared in the public sector. 

Dr Renuka Badhe serves as the Executive Secretary of the European Polar Board since 2015. As a knowledge broker with a background in polar research, oceanography and public policy, she has longstanding expertise working at the interface of science, policy and/or strategy development or overlaps thereof. Renuka has worked with national, European and International organisations on various aspects of polar, climate or marine science and policy, and has been invited to serve on various national and international scientific and advisory committees, including on the IPY Planning Committee, ICARP IV, amongst many others. She is a passionate advocate for diversity in polar research and has founded the Women in Polar Science network to highlight and promote women working in all aspects of polar research, particularly members of underrepresented communities.