Prof Isabel Sousa Pinto has a PhD in Marine Biology (phycology) from the UCSB, USA. She is a Professor at the University of Porto and Head of the Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation group at (CIIMAR). Member of the Board of Directors from Interdisciplinar Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR-UP) Head of the Laboratory of Coastal Biodiversity with about 30 researchers at the Ciimar-UP doing research on ecology and marine biodiversity: a) distribution patterns and biology b) the role of biodiversity in the functioning and services of the ecosystems, and the effects of multiple drivers including climate change and invasive species, fisheries and harvest. Focus on rocky shore communities and kelp forests, participating in the global network http://www.kelpecosystems.org that was launched during the project “Global impacts of climate change on kelp forest ecosystems” Funded by NCEAS, USA. A major focus is the study of algae: biology, ecophysiology, cultivation, sustainable use and creation of new products and economic activities that help sustainability. 20 years research in systems of Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (IMTA), a nature based solution approach to aquaculture, where an ecosystem -like set-up is used so all the resources (nutrients, CO2, particles) are used and there is no effluents. We have a prototipe systems in collaboration with commercial fish aquacultures and we did also experimental cultivations at sea. We have collaborations with several institutions and companies for the development of algal production for food, fish feed, fertilizer, biofuels and for the development of new products for biomedical applications. From this work and from our team two spin off companies already resulted (AlgaPlus and ISS). Currently we work on different H2020 projects on seaweed production and Biorefinery – GENIALG and H2020 Pan- Atlantic aquaculture project AQUAVITAE with partners from Europe, US, Canada, Brazil, Namíbia and South Africa. Member of the Steering/Executive Committees of several European and international programs: EUROMARINE Consortium – European Network of Marine research)(2014- present), EMBOS - Development and implementation of a pan-European Marine Biodiversity Observatory System. (2011-2015), EOOS – European Ocean Observation System (2016-present), AtlantOS All Atlantic Observation System - (2019-), EKLYPSE - Establishing a European Knowledge and Learning Mechanism to Improve the Policy- Science- Society Interface on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.(2016-2020) Member of the Implementing Committee of GEO BON from the intergovernamental program GEO - Global Earth Observation - Biodiversity Observation Network and Co-chair of its Marine Biodiversity Observation Netowrk (MBON) (2010 - present). Member of the Seering Committee of IABO – International Association for Biological Oceanography (2015- ) Member of “Working Group on Resilience and Marine Ecosystem Services” from ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) (SG BioDiv) (2013- present) and of the European Marine Board Working Group on ¿Strengthening Europe's biological ocean observing capacity' (WG BIO OBS) (2017- present ), Member of the POGO working group “Planning the implementation of a global long-term observing and data sharing strategy for macroalgal communities” (2018- 2019) Member of the Portuguese delegation for the UN CBD (Convention for Biological Diversity) – from 2006 to 2011 and Portuguese Representative in the UN IPBES - Intergovernamental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2013 -2018) until she was ellected as Member of its Mutidisciplinary Expert Panel and sellected as Co-chair of its Data and Knowledge Task Force. She was also a Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) for the Regional Assessemnt of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Europe and Central Asia for UN IPBES – (2015-2018).