Pier Luigi Buttigieg is a senior data scientist and digital architect at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.

With a focus on digital interoperability and biodiversity, he contributes to the steering, strategy, and operations of multiple European Horizon projects as well as international initiatives, including several Actions within the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. He chairs the Ocean Data and Information System Project of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, co-chairs the implementation group for the Ocean Decade's data and information strategy, serves on the GOOS Biology and Ecosystems Panel, and serves on CODATA's cross-domain interoperability framework (CDIF) working group.

Starting from December, 2010 works at the Permanent Secretariat to the Commission on the Protection of Black Sea Against Pollution (Bucharest Convention), an international intergovernmental organization based in Istanbul, Turkey. In April, 2014 got a position of Pollution Monitoring and Assessment Officer. Before moving to Turkey worked as a diplomat in the Mission of Ukraine to the European Union in Brussels being responsible for EU-Ukraine cooperation in the field of environment, transport, space, research and education; earlier as a Deputy Head of Office to Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and as a diplomat of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. She has a Master Degree in the field of Environmental and Energy Law obtained at a Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Leuven (Kingdom of Belgium), Certificates on Water Law (University of Dundee, Scotland), Environmental Diplomacy (University of Geneva, Switzerland) and Regional Economics (University of Genoa, Italy).

Luca is Deputy Head of Unit for Sustainable Blue Economy at CINEA (EU Climate, Infrastucture and Environment Executive Agency), the so-called Green Deal Agency. He is seconded to CINEA from the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission and he leads the team responsible for implementing blue economy actions funded by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), including EMODNET, Blue Economy Observatory, MSP, BlueInvest, Flagship projects, etc. He is a scuba-diver and sailor, passionate about our oceans.   

In his previous positions at the European Commission, he has been team-leader for Sea basin strategies and maritime cooperation at the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, coordinator for Private Sector Development Policy in Developing Countries (Directorate General for Development and Cooperation), coordinator for Cohesion Policy in Northern and Central Italy (Directorate General for Regional Policy) and Task manager for PHARE Programmes at the EU Delegation in Poland (Directorate General for Enlargement). Before joining the European Commission he was an official of the Region Emilia-Romagna responsible mainly for programmes co-funded by the European Structural Funds, notably rural and local development policies.