David O’Sullivan

David is from Ireland, a relatively small but formidable island in the Northeast Atlantic. He is a Marine Biologist and has been with Ireland’s Marine Institute for over 14 years across a number of sections. Previous research involved mapping larval transportation models, which contributed to sustainable management of commercial fish stocks and provided practical advice on marine-spatial planning. With INFOMAR, Ireland’s national seabed mapping programme, he developed the value-added and education program to help translate complex seabed mapping data to a range of audiences.

He has completed multiple offshore and onshore surveys including hydrographic, geophysical, fisheries and biological exploration. The latter included 152 ROV dives as Chief Scientist of a high impact, marine biodiversity assessment project, the EMFF Offshore Reef Survey ‘SeaRover’, which supported marine management and planning decisions in Ireland. David is currently Programme Manager for Our Shared Ocean, a funding initiative from the Gov. of Ireland to support research, knowledge exchange and capacity building in partnership with Small Island Developing States and he manages 22 Ocean Research Projects based throughout the global SIDS. He has also developed multiple training opportunities for SIDS participants with various partners including Island Innovation and the UN Ocean Decade. He currently sits on the the IOC Group of Experts for Capacity Development.