Professor Clara Ulrich, DTU Aqua, will head the 32 experts that advise the European Commission on fisheries
Professor Clara Ulrich, DTU Aqua, has been elected chair of the EU advisory committee Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF).
STECF provides scientific advice to the European Commission on biological, economic, environmental, social, and technical aspects of fisheries and the EU’s common fisheries policy. The Commission consults STECF on specific issues and has a duty to involve the Committee when new proposals for fisheries management are made.
The chair’s primary role is to lead STECF’s three annual plenary sessions, each of which lasts one week and are held in April, July, and October, respectively. Clara Ulrich has been an ordinary member of STECF for 4½ years, and has been elected chair for a term of three years—with the possibility of an extension.
STECF consists of 32 members appointed by the European Commission by virtue of their expertise. Therefore, they do not represent their daily workplace or their country. STECF has two Danish members. In addition to Clara Ulrich, Jesper Levring Andersen, Associate Professor, Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen, is a member of the Committee.
Clara Ulrich is 41 years old and comes from France, where she took her MSc and PhD degrees. She has been employed at DTU Aqua since 2000, and was appointed professor in fisheries management last year. Clara Ulrich works with a broad spectrum of fisheries management issues—from model development to cooperation with businesses and the authorities. She is currently international coordinator for the H2020 project ‘DiscardLess’ which aims to devise strategies for how discarding fish can be reduced in European fisheries.