OVERVIEW

Dr. Grehan is a University (Research) Fellow in the discipline of Earth and Ocean Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Dr. Grehan obtained his PhD in Zoology in Ireland before undertaking post-doctoral studies at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Paris VI (Laboratoire Arago, Banyuls) and at the Université du Québec in Rimouski and Montreal, Canada. This work primarily focused on benthic mapping/monitoring and environmental assessments of estuaries, embayments and coastal seas,  and of hydrothermal vent and seep areas, in the deep-sea.

Dr. Grehan over the past 15 years has focused his research efforts on the mapping/characterisation, habitat suitability modeling, identification of impacts and conservation of cold-water coral reefs and the sustainable management of deep-sea resources in general. He is former chair of the Irish Coral Reef Task Force – a cross sectoral forum – that brought the need to conserve Irish coral reefs to the attention of the media and policy makers in Ireland.  This ultimately paved the way for Ireland to be the first country in the European Union to protect cold-water coral reefs under the EU Habitats Directive.  Dr. Grehan has developed a keen awareness of policy matters and has co-authored legal and socio-economic papers addressing important aspects of sustainable development.

Dr. Grehan has 20 years of experience working in European funded marine projects and recently coordinated the 11 country, large integrating EU FP7 project: ‘CoralFISH‘ – Ecosystem based management of deep-sea corals, fish and fisheries.  Dr. Grehan is currently a work package leader in the H2020 project ‘ATLAS’ – A Trans-AtLantic Assessment and deep-water ecosystem-based Spatial management plan for Europe; is co-work package leader in the H2020 project ‘Merces’ – Marine ecosystem restoration in changing European Seas; and is a member of the NUI, Galway team participating in the H2020 Ocean Literacy project: ‘Sea Change – Our Ocean Our Health’.

Dr. Grehan is a member of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) working groups on Deep-Sea Ecosystems and Marine Habitat Mapping and has chaired an EC Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) working group evaluating the effectiveness of marine protected areas as tools in fisheries management.  In 2009 he was invited by the French Department of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning, as an international expert to participate in a Commission examining the long-term sustainability of the French deep-sea fishing industry. He recently completed a review of European funded climate change research in the NE Atlantic as part of the EU FP7 CLAMER project. He has contributed to a number of European research foresight reports.

Dr. Grehan has been an EC expert evaluator during the last three framework programmes: FP5, FP6 and FP7 and recently acted as an FP6 project reviewer and has reviewed scientific papers for numerous scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Dr. Grehan is an active sea-going scientist, participating in c. 20 full-ocean going expeditions including 10 ROV/submersible expeditions and has been chief or co-scientist on four recent Celtic Explorer expeditions in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2015.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For more details check out my NUIG Research Profile