National Hubs

National Hub France

Frédérick​ Herpers

Frédérick Herpers is an engineer in hydrography and oceanography (ENSTA Bretagne). He has 13 years of experience in geophysics sciences (hydrography, oceanography, geography) for civilian and military purposes (for the Defence ministry. He has more than 10 years of experience in design and implementation of integrated maritime and coastal policies (EU, Sea basin, national, regional and local level) as Integrated Maritime Policy advisor for French Prime Minister at Secretariat general de la Mer (2008-2011). He contributed to the elaboration and adoption of the French maritime policy in 2009, the law transposition of MSFD as the environmental pillar of the national strategy for the sea and the shoreline. As a consultant since 2014 at Stratégies Mer et Littoral (SML), he has been involved in several projects related to Blue Economy mainly in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea mobilizing his skills and experience in legal and technical matters to develop and implement endorsed maritime strategies and to engage stakeholders in a sustainable blue economy.  He has been the national hub for France since 2018 for WestMed Initiative and 2020 for the Atlantic Action Plan 2.0.  Therefore, he has a strong liaison with the national coordinator (Secrétariat géneral de la Mer). He is used to work with French maritime competitiveness clusters (Pôle Mer Méditerranée and Atlantique Bretagne) which assists him in its functions as NH for the respective seabasin in a synergetic approach.

He provides with assistance in the design and implementation of integrated maritime and coastal policies and coastal territorial projects, in project management assistance (prospective and strategic studies, drafting of specifications, monitoring of studies, blue economy assessment, maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal zones management) for public  authorities, NGOs  or private sectors.


National Hub Ireland

Elizabeth Gavin

Elizabeth has over 23 years experience working on EU related programmes as an EU official in both Brussels and The Hague for the European Commission, Eurojust and Clean Aviation (formerly Clean Sky JU). Elizabeth has also considerable experience in international stakeholder management (including Airbus, Rolls Royce, Liebherr, Dassault, Leonardo and Saab (Aviation Research Divisions) She has worked within the European Commission, reported regularly into the European Parliament, and liaised with the European Court of Auditors throughout her career in the EU. 

Over the past 7 years based in Ireland, Elizabeth has been supporting companies and third level organisations on  EU funding opportunities, including working on maritime and blue economy initiatives in Ireland. She has also contributed to policy development initiatives relating to the role of Ports for offshore wind development and the green transition of ports. Elizabeth has a wealth and unique combination of expert knowledge in the research and innovation business community as well as from within the EU institutions. She strikes a unique balance in approach and understanding which she brings to the Atlantic Assistance Mechanism in her role as National Hub for Ireland. Elizabeth speaks fluent French. She has been National Hub for Ireland since January 2020. 


National Hub Spain

Marta Pascual

Marta Pascual

Marta Pascual is the Spanish National Hub for the Western Mediterranean Initiative (WestMED) as well as for the Atlantic Action Plan. She has also been appointed as an expert working for the EU MSP Platform and has also been working as a Senior Expert for the EU Commission in works related to Maritime Spatial Planning, Blue Growth, Blue Economy, Circular Economy, Natural Capital Accounting, Biodiversity modelling and Ecosystem Services modelling. Academically, she holds a PhD in Maritime Spatial Planning, is a former Ikerbasque Post-Doctoral Researcher and currently an Associated Researcher at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3, Spain), where she is advancing with the Eco-modelling Research Team on the development of marine ecosystem services models using ARIES (a semantic-modelling platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine reasoning following the FAIR principles).  She has more than 13 years of professional experience in the application and implementation of various European environmental and maritime directives such as the MSFD; MSPD; Habitats and Birds Directive, WFD. Her experience in research includes various lines of spatial analysis, stakeholder engagement, scenario mapping, participatory mapping and marine and coastal research applied to maritime policies such as MSP, Ecosystem Services Mapping/Modelling, Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Biological Valuation and Ecosystem Services Valuation (ESV).