Leadership team

Dr Claire Evans National Oceanography Centre

Claire is a senior scientist in biogeochemistry who specialises in understanding the pathways that influence carbon flow in the marine environment. She leads a diverse portfolio of research which examines processes ranging from land use change to microbial metabolism. Claire has a track record of synthesizing multidisciplinary approaches to understand coastal vegetated habitats such as her the FCDO-funded project SALINE, which has generated a high-resolution map of seagrass over the Belizean coastal shelf and valued the ecosystem services it provides. Claire is highly engaged in translating outputs to impact by working closely with a range of stakeholders, such as the Belizean government in supporting development of their IPCC Nationally Determined Contribution. Claire is leading the ReSOW project and overseeing the integration of the data streams, as well as heading up the seagrass blue carbon assessment.

Dr Leanne Cullen-Unsworth Swansea University

Leanne specialises in coupled social-ecological systems analysis. She uses an ecosystem service (ES) lens to evidence the importance of seagrass meadows globally. Leanne currently works on seagrass restoration in the UK, collaborating with stakeholders from multiple sectors, including local and regional governments, natural resource management authorities and local communities within cooperative research frameworks. As CEO of the environmental charity Project Seagrass, she leads a team turning research into effective restoration and conservation action. Within ReSOW Leanne focuses on social and political bottlenecks both bottom up and top down that currently impede UK restoration at meaningful scales. ReSOW is generating evidence that will help formulate solutions for restoration action on the ground now and into the future.

Dr Richard Unsworth Swansea University

Richard is a Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology and leads the Seagrass Ecosystem Research Group at Swansea University. He is also a founder and chair of trustees of the marine conservation charity Project Seagrass (www.projectseagrass.org). Richard has undertaken applied research on seagrass restoration in the UK since 2014 and led the innovative Seagrass Ocean Rescue, the UKs first major seagrass restoration project, in partnership with WWF and Sky. Richard also led the development of a global seagrass Citizen Science project SeagrassSpotter.

Prof James Bull Swansea University

Jim is an Associate Professor of Biosciences and leads the Spatial and Population Ecology Research Group at Swansea University. His research into species and community dynamics and resilience has been funded by the EU, DEFRA, NE, NRW, and overseas governments, including Saudi Arabia and Brunei. In addition to over 15 years of research experience, he has an extensive track record of working with regulatory and commercial partners (NE, NRW, DEFRA, Tidal Power Ltd.). His position on the Board of Environment Platform Wales, which comprises HEI, government, and government-sponsored partners, brings expertise on evidence-based policy development and regulatory guidance. He also leads the Isles of Scilly long-term monitoring project - the world’s longest unbroken annual seagrass monitoring project which started in 1996.

Prof Danny Campbell University of Stirling

Danny's main areas of research concern the economic valuation of environmental and natural resources as well as preference elicitation for public health services. In ReSOW he will lead the research to assess the economic value of cultural ecosystem services provided by seagrass.

Dr Richard Lilley Project Seagrass

Richard is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Project Seagrass.  He has spent the last decade developing and implementing seagrass research, conservation, and restoration programmes in collaboration with coastal communities. Project Seagrass works internationally to develop tools to improve seagrass ecosystem awareness, monitoring and management. At Project Seagrass, Dr Lilley has worked on seagrass research projects in the Caribbean, Indo-Pacific, North Atlantic and Mediterranean seagrass bioregions with a personal focus on the sustainable supply chain management of small-scale capture fisheries. In ReSOW he is supporting project research and coordination with a particular focus on the Scottish case study sites. He will also support the communication of research outputs from across the research programme.