Danielle spent part of her career in academia at Queen’s University Belfast where she worked with partners across government departments, local councils, community organisations, charities and schools.

Her focus is to help transform business and society in ways that help create a more prosperous, equal, sustainable, healthy world. She applies her expertise in translational and multi-sector applied research to connect expertise, create and share knowledge to help support the development of impactful partnerships and evidence-based action across the food system.

Having forged a unique career journey, transitioning between sectors, with experience holding dual professional positions, while enjoying active parenthood with three young children, she is passionate about inclusive, supportive workplace culture as a key enabler of success.

Keen on playing a strong role in driving forward the agrifood agenda, Declan played an active role on several government Brexit advisory bodies. He sat on the Alternative Arrangements Advisory Technical Group advising UK Government, and also led a delegation of NI business leaders in discussions with Task Force 50 in Brussels.

Declan is a member of the Institute for Global Food Security's Industry Advisory Board and sits on the Executive Committee of the NI Grain Trade Association and is a Past President. He is the current Chair of the NI Poultry Federation. Declan played a vital leadership role in the development of the Food Fortress Feed-Safety Assurance Scheme.

Declan has been recognised by the agrifood industry for his practice and development of agriculture and received his Fellowship with Institute of Directors (FIoD), Associateship of Rural Agricultural Societies (ARAgS). He received an MBE for services to NI's economy in 2019.

Declan’s research interests focus on food safety, nutrition to deliver low-carbon, livestock footprints and green energy, in particular biogas and hydrogen.

Ursula is responsible for an integrated, Europe-wide technical organisation. Her research focuses on Animal Welfare and Food Safety/Integrity including Campylobacter, Salmonella and Listeria. She is recognised as a leading authority on Food Safety and Poultry research with 18 peer-reviewed published papers.

Ursula is involved in a number of advisory bodies including IGD Technical Leadership Forum; Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials (FIIA); and the Food Industry Liaison Group of the Food Standards Agency NI. She has previously sat on the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Acting on Campylobacter Together (ACT). Ursula is a Board member and Vice Chairperson of the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association (NIFDA; a Board member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) at Queen's University; and the AgriFood Quest Competence Centre, based at Queen's University. She is a Non-Executive Director of both the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) and GS1 UK.

Ursula has received Industry awards including a NIFDA Award for Outstanding Leadership during Covid19; ‘International Director of the Year’ from the NI Institute of Directors in 2021; and a Women in Business leadership award in 2016. She was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s honours list 2023 for services to the agrifood industry and the economy of Northern Ireland.

In this capacity he attends court; in parallel, he is active in professional bodies such as IFST and RSC. Despite such a high profile, Michael believes helping and learning from students and colleagues in the School of Biological Sciences and IGFS and this is turning out to be the most fulfilling and enjoyable aspect of his career.

Michael’s career as a consulting chemist has had a major focus on food safety and authenticity, firstly as an Official Food Control Scientist (resident Public Analyst in Northern Ireland), later as Referee Analyst in the Laboratory of the Government Chemist.

Michael retired as Head of the Office of the Government Chemist in 2021. Concurrently, he held a portfolio of non-executive posts including as a founder board-member of the Food Standards Agency.

Michael’s practice and research focuses on food safety and food authenticity. He has a particular interest in the measurement of food allergens, is co-chair of the ILSI-Europe quantitative allergen risk assessment expert group and a member of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Michael’s book ‘DNA Techniques to Verify Food Authenticity: Applications in Food Fraud’ stemmed from work on the horsemeat scandal. He chairs a BSI committee on Food Authenticity, working with experts from all over the UK and Europe. Michael’s other current interests include honey authenticity, where he proposed the use of a forensic likelihood ratio approach to weight of evidence evaluation. For more information see his Orchid ID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4350-5549

In 2017, Michael was elected Honorary Fellow in IFST for extensive personal contribution to the working and progress of the Institute and to the food science and technology profession.

John is also Chair of ARC Zero, a farmer-led innovation project taking seven farmers in Northern Ireland on a journey towards Net Zero, funded jointly by the EU’s EIP-Agri Programme and DAERA.

John’s research focuses on climate-smart agriculture; sustainable land management; farmer behavioural change; policy, regulatory and innovation creation; and soil health.

John's employment background includes being a former Chair of the UK’s Rural Climate Change Forum; former President of the Ulster Farmers’ Union; former Vice Chair of the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission; former Chair of NI’s Sustainable Land Management Strategy & Ammonia, Expert Working Group; former Director of Global Agriculture and Sustainability for Devenish Nutrition and former Project leader of UNESCO World Heritage site, the Devenish Lands at Dowth.

John has had many career highlights. As Deputy President of the Ulster Farmers' Union, during the 17 weeks of the 2001 outbreak of the Foot and Mouth disease, he worked with the NI Government's Agriculture Minister and Chief Vet to eliminate the disease.

As Chair of the Sustainable Land Management Strategy, John helped secure £45m to create the NI Soil Nutrient & Health Scheme - a world first. John is also working with Queen's researchers to reduce methane emissions from cattle by grazing willow coppice.

As co-author of the text book ‘Meat Hygiene’, 10^th and 11^th editions, and RCVS Diploma holder in Vet Public Health (Meat Hygiene), Robert maintains a keen interest in all aspects of the production of safe food. He has a curiosity in all aspects of Veterinary Public Health, animal health, animal welfare and public health, their interconnection with each other and the environment, through the construct of ‘One Health’. 

Robert has represented the veterinary profession locally, nationally and internationally having been elected to hold the positions of President of the North of Ireland Veterinary Association, President of the Veterinary Public Health Association, President of the Union of European Veterinary Hygienists and vice-president of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe. Currently he is vice-president of the Association of Meat Hygienists.

He participated in the European veterinary school self-evaluation programme, as food safety expert and as chair of the last six visitations. Robert was awarded RCVS Fellowship for meritorious contribution to the profession and a Associateship of Royal Agricultural Societies (ARAgS). 

For the past decade, Paul has been an integral leader in Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, where he has held roles such as Head of Antiparasitics R&D and Head of New Mechanisms Parasitology. Currently, he is a "Principal Fellow in Research Parasitology” within BIAH's global parasitology department, a position awarded only to select individuals at the company. In this capacity, Paul commands a breadth of knowledge and skills that encompass Drug Discovery, Biologicals/Vaccine Research, Infectious Diseases, Anti-Parasitics, Anti-Infectives, Cancer, Translational Medicine, GxP Quality Expertise, Large scale (GMP) Antibody & Vaccine production, Bioinformatics, Structural Biology, Chemoinformatics and R&D IT.

Paul was recognized in 2018 with the award of the Rudolf Leuckart Medal by the German Society for Parasitology. Awarded biennially, this prestigious international award honors truly exceptional individuals, who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of parasitology in Germany and globally. So far, the first and only scientist from a pharmaceutical company to receive this award, Paul’s contributions to both BI and the general advancement of parasitology are noteworthy and significant, including leadership of the annual Drug Design and Development Seminar (DDDS) Meeting-Series, teaching activities and related textbooks, and editing a book-series focused on drug discovery in various parasitology areas.

James has 40 years experience in the veterinary field. He qualified from Glasgow University in 1999, and worked for GIBSON MAYBIN PARTNERS Ballymena for eight years. He also worked during the response to the foot and mouth outbreak and spent a number of years working in the TB Eradication program.

James' research interests focus on socioeconomic delivery of veterinary services, the social impact of veterinary services in society and Neurodiversity in education: impact and utilisation. 

James is a father of three boys, two with neurodiverse diagnosis. Alongside his wife, they have an extensive lived experience of the impact of this on education and a passion for making this diagnosis a resource rather than a burden.