Esther graduated from the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science in 2012. In 2017 she established Shanaghan Veterinary Services which is Ireland’s first integrated veterinary referral service which includes veterinary acupuncture, veterinary chiropractic, pain management, rehabilitation, performance optimisation and laser therapy. In 2021, Esther became the first vet in Ireland to become a Certified Equine Rehabilitation Practitioner through the University of Tennessee. She is an experienced breeder and producer of Irish Sport Horses and has competed in various equestrian disciplines. Esther is passionate about improving the standards of equine welfare and regularly presents to stakeholders from the equine industry across Ireland. She also farms on a part-time basis, producing both commercial and pedigree sheep.

Esther has undertaken research which has been published in the Equine Veterinary Journal and is currently active in a range of research projects including collaborations with University of Bristol and Racing to Relate. She peer reviews for the Equine Veterinary Journal, regularly publishes a range of educational articles across mainstream media and is also a co-supervisor and placement provider for undergraduate, masters and PhD level research projects.

Esther is President of North Of Ireland Veterinary Association, President of British Veterinary Association Northern Ireland Branch, Member of CAFRE College Advisory Group, Member of UFU Next Generation Development Forum and Northern Ireland Representative UK Notifiable Equine Diseases Core Group.

Ramon’s current research interests focus on the interactions between health, nutrition and management, sow lifetime performance and health, and reducing carbon footprint of monogastric systems through implementing circularity processes, identifying alternative protein ingredients and reducing ammonia excretion.

Ramon has a degree in Veterinary Medicine and a PhD in Animal Production both from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He has conducted research internships at the Melbourne University in Australia, Universidade Estadual de Londrina in Brazil, and Aarhus University in Denmark.

In his 28 years with the retailer Sainsbury’s, Alec managed safety, quality, supplier performance, technical training, serious incidents, customer complaints, analytical assurance and the in-house accredited laboratory. Prior to Sainsbury’s, he worked in food manufacturing including the dairy and brewing industries.

Alec’s main areas of interest are food safety, quality and technical management in the food supply-chain with a particular focus on microbial, foodborne pathogens and their control.

Alec is the co-author of books on the practical control of foodborne pathogens including Salmonella, Listeria, C. botulinum, Campylobacter and E. coli. Alec sits on a number of influential industry and government committees and is currently a Non-Executive Board Director of Campden BRI, a Trustee of the Institute of Food Science and Technology and a Member of the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food.

Her current research focuses on developing and testing breeding and nutrition strategies to improve performance, health and efficiency of sheep-production systems, and reduce their environmental impact. This involves the use of precision technologies such as GPS and activity collars, automated feeding systems to record individual feed intake as well as respiration chambers to monitor greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ruminants. 

Aurélie’s research interests also include the development and application of farm-level tools such as LCAs to model and quantify sustainability metrics of livestock production systems.

Aurélie is working closely with industrial partners such as farmers, levy boards and processors. She is a committee member of the National Sheep Association for NI since 2013 and chair of the Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body for AFBI Hillsborough since 2014, to advise and review the use of animals under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (ASPA).

Mark has ten years’ experience in First Opinion veterinary practice, then worked as a Technical Consultant for two international pharmaceutical companies and an international nutrition company.

His published research is on the effects of management strategy on performance and immune function of dairy cows, particularly during the transition and early lactation period.

Mark completed his veterinary degree and post-graduate certificate in University College Dublin, and his PhD in Queen's University Belfast. Mark is a Nuffield Farming Scholar, and a Past President of the North of Ireland Veterinary Association (NIVA) and the British Veterinary Association (BVA) Northern Ireland branch.

He is also an honorary veterinary lecturer for the College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), sits on the Animal Health Ireland (AHI)'s Calf Care Technical Working Group and is a reviewer for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' inFOCUS journal.

Paul is a Teaching Fellow at Western University. His research focuses on the impact of immersive technologies (eg. virtual reality, augmented reality, immersive video) on student motivation, engagement, and scientific literacy in undergraduate and graduate courses. Paul’s work has a particular focus on interdisciplinary environmental courses and engaging students with STEM subject matter related to sustainability and climate-change education.

Paul’s biological research revolves around the interaction between people and the marine environment and aims to promote ocean sustainability by improving management practices and conservation outcomes. To achieve this goal, he uses a diverse array of empirical and observational approaches to study the behaviour, movement, ecology and population dynamics of marine species, with a strong focus on species that are directly exploited or adversely affected by commercial and recreational fisheries.

Richard’s areas of expertise includes mycology and forest pathology. His research focuses on forest pathology, pathogen detection, pathogen epidemiology, mycology and plant disease.

Associate Editor for the journal Biology And Environment, Richard is a member of the EPPO expert panel on mycology and on quarantine pests of forestry.

A Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, Sean was a founder director of Vet Sustain, a community-interest company that is inspiring and supporting veterinary professionals to drive change towards a more sustainable future.

He has contributed to animal-welfare and conservation projects around the world and in 2017, he received the inaugural World Veterinary Association Global Animal-Welfare Award for Europe. In 2023 he received the JA Wight memorial award from the British Small Animal Veterinary Association  for outstanding contributions to pet welfare.

Sean’s policy and research interests are in animal welfare and ethics, veterinary ethics, One Health and sustainability.

He is the author of Through A Vet’s Eyes: How to Care for Animals and Treat Them Better, which was selected as one of the Financial Times’ Best Summer Books of 2022.

Aoibh’s experience includes leading on projects investigating Northern Ireland food and drink purchasing, the FSAs Food and You 2 Survey and other consumer attitudes and purchasing surveys. She leads on the coordination of the Northern Ireland boosted sample of the National Diet and Nutrition survey with colleagues from the Department of Health and safefood and also works with colleagues from the Department of Health and Social Care to manage the Northern Ireland boost, representing Northern Ireland at UK Project Board meetings. 

Aoibh represents the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland as an official government observer at Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition meetings and subgroup meetings.

Heather's research interest has shifted from Deep-Sea Biology to applied environmental research. Her current post requires a muti-disciplinary approach to provide scientific evidence to support the sustainable development of the Northern Irish Shellfish Industry. Work areas focus on the limiting factors to the development of the industry including: food availability (development of carrying capacity models for the five sea loughs primarily for management of the industry, but recently expanded the model remit to investigate ecosystem health using chlorophyll as one of the indicators. She has been involved in the development of a series of catchment to coast coupled model frameworks for Lough Foyle, Carlingford Lough, Belfast Lough and Dundrum Bay); Space (Marine spatial planning); poor water quality (Investigating E.coli and other contaminants); disease and Invasive non-native species (INNS and their impact on the industry).

Heather is also the co-project lead on three Evidence and Innovation DAERA funded projects investigation: bathing water quality, climate change scenarios using ecosystem models and the more recent Sustainable Algae Northern Ireland (SANI) project, investigating the feasibility of seaweed aquaculture in Northern Ireland.