Work package 1, Adriaan Hellemans: Developing Paludiculture Demonstrators
Adriaan is the work package (WP) leader for WP1: Developing Paludiculture Demonstrators and the primary contact for all activities within this work package.
With over 20 years of experience in European programmes and nature-based projects, he combines policy expertise with hands-on project management. He has worked with managing authorities for the Rural Development Program and the European Regional Development Fund, and supported several Interreg, LIFE and Horizon projects. His roles have ranged from project controller and consultant to demonstration manager, with proven results in securing funding and guiding innovative climate and circular economy projects.
He specializes in European fund management, stakeholder coordination, and the development of practical solutions for climate adaptation and circular resource use.
In this paludiculture project, he brings together his experience to help create innovative pathways for climate change mitigation and sustainable prospects for farmers in Dutch peat meadow areas.
Find him on LinkedIn.
Work Package 2, Dr Florence Renou-Wilson: Best Practices for Transitioning from Drained to Wet Peat Soils
Florence is a researcher, lecturer and director of the MSc Programme in Global Change: Ecosystem Science and Policy at School of Biology & Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Ireland.
She has investigated peatlands for more than 25 years at the crossroads of ecology, forestry, agriculture, climate change and sustainable management.
Florence is investigating peatland management under future global change and how best to preserve and restore the many services they provide; ultimately providing guidance to policy makers, industry, natural resource managers and the increasing number of local communities.
She has been appointed scientific advisor to the Irish government multi-stakeholder Peatlands Council and has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Wetlands Supplement and the Special report on Climate Change and Land.
Find her on LinkedIn.
Work Package 3, Chris Field: Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Carbon Credits
Dr Chris Field
Chris researches plant and soil responses to environmental change. He collaborates with NGOs, UK and EU Government Agencies by providing underpinning evidence on the risks to biodiversity from nitrogen deposition, and the development of new practices for the restoration and management of degraded peatlands.
Much of this work aims to inform how alternative land management can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and be economically beneficial for land-owners. Chris has been involved with peatland restoration for over 20 years including sphagnum farming and paludiculture trials, and has delivered projects that bring together farmers, commercial and public landowners, policy makers and businesses.
He was also lead author for Wetlands in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 2022 Review and revision of Empirical Critical Loads for Nitrogen.
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Work Package 4, Olga Filina: Preparing for Market
Olga holds a PhD in Life Sciences and has previously worked in international institutes at the forefront of research and innovation. With a track record of studying complex living systems at the microscopic scale, she went on to explore her interest in biodiversity within larger ecosystems, which brought her to the field of landscape-scale conservation.
At the Lab, she combines research acumen with an ability to manage projects and collaborate within multidisciplinary, international teams.
Among other projects, she is responsible for Palus Demos, an EU-funded project aimed at preserving natural wetlands and advancing sustainable agricultural practices across Europe.
Find her on LinkedIn.
Work Package 5, Dr Saaed Alsamhi: Smart Palud
Saeed Alsamhi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, University of Galway. His research focuses on QoS, space technologies (high-altitude platforms, drones, tethered balloons), multi-robot collaboration, human-robot interaction, activity and emotion recognition, B5G, smart environments, Dataspace 4.0, and Industry 4.0/5.0.
He has made significant contributions to wireless communication networks for IoT and smart cities, integrating UAVs, robotics, reinforcement learning, federated learning, blockchain, and digital twins. His 211+ publications, 6,057+ citations, and H-index of 45 reflect the quality and impact of his work.
Saeed has established strong research collaborations globally and has served as a Lead Guest Editor for Drones, Energies, and Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience. He is also a technical committee member and track chair at multiple IEEE conferences. Currently, his work focuses on decentralized data sharing, wastewater-to-energy solutions, water quality monitoring, smart paludiculture, and climate change adaptation.
His work at Palus Demos involves the use of artificial intelligence and data-powered support platforms to support paludiculture. He can be contacted through the Insight Centre.
Work Package 6, Wojciech Mroz: Informing Paludiculture Policy
Wojciech Mroz is an ecologist with 19 years of practical experience in nature conservation in various sectors. He has proven, professional experience in several positions in very diverse multi-stakeholder projects: starting from field research technician, GIS technician and data analyst, independent researcher, head of scientific department, large scale project manager, national coordinator of natural habitats monitoring scheme, independent ecological consultant and expert in nature conservation for WWF.
He is Project Officer with Palus Demos partner Eurosite – The European Land Conservation Network and leader of our policy unit, Work Package 6.
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Work Package 7, Louise Holden: Communications, Dissemination and Exploitation
Louise leads work package 7 of the Palus Demos research consortium.
Her goal is to spread the news of Palus Demos’ work to audiences across Europe – in particular farmers, industry, researchers and policymakers.
Louise is tasked with disseminating research outputs to relevant stakeholders, such as agricultural organisations and businesses, and helping turn those research outputs into sustainable projects to build Europe’s capacity for sustainable farming.
Louise is a founding director of FH Media Consulting Ltd, specialising in science and research communication. She is a former journalist with The Irish Times.
Find her on LinkedIn.
Work Package 8 & 9, Niall Ó Brolcháin: Management & Ethics Requirements
Niall leads work package 8 & 9 of the Palus Demos research consortium and he is the Coordinator of the project.
His goal is to Coordinate the project and to ensure that it is successful in its stated objectives.
Niall is tasked with project coordination & management, running the partner meetings & internal consortium communications. He is responsible together with his colleagues at the University of Galway for the administration & financial management of the project. He is also responsible for data management, collaboration with related projects and ethical considerations.
Niall is head of the ASPECT Research Unit at the Data Science Institute in the University of Galway in Ireland. Niall also lectures in public policy and is a formerly a Senator in the Irish parliament and previously served as Mayor of Galway City.
Find him on LinkedIn.
Site leaders
Dr Terry Morley, wetland ecologist
Dr. Terry Morley is a wetland ecologist and Lecturer in Geography at the University of Galway.
With more than 30 years of experience across both the public and private sectors, Terry has developed extensive expertise in wetland identification and delineation, habitat conservation, and the management of sensitive species.
In recent years, Terry’s work has focused on peatland ecology and conservation in Ireland, where he has led multiple national and European projects dedicated to peatland restoration, assessment, and sustainable management.
On Palus Demos Terry is responsible for implementation of WP1 activities at the Irish demonstration sites. In addition, he is responsible for the Monitoring Reporting and Validation (MRV) activities for WP3. This includes site environmental, ecological, and greenhouse gas measurements and data collection.
Find him on LinkedIn.
Sarah Johnson, Head of Peatland Nature Recovery, Lancashire Wildlife Trust
Sarah has a background in conservation science, and particular interest in sustainable land
management. She has worked on various peatland projects in the North West and currently leads LWT’s award winning peatland programme work to improve and restore the peat landscape, and to explore innovative land management practises on agricultural peat soils. Sarah has sat on Defra’s Lowland Peatland Taskforce NW sub-group, is a lead author of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s Commission of Inquiry report on Productive Lowland Peatland, and a co-author of Natural England’s England Peat Strategy: Greater Manchester Peat Pilot Report for Defra.
Sarah has a background in conservation science, and particular interest in sustainable land
management. She leads LWT’s award winning work to improve and restore the peat landscape, and to explore innovative land management practises on agricultural peat soils. Active also in the policy / strategy in these areas, Sarah has sat on Defra’s Lowland Peatland Taskforce NW sub-group, and is a lead author of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s Commission of Inquiry report on Productive Lowland Peatland.
Jereon Vrolijk: Struunhoeve Agri
Jeroen is co-owner of Struunhoeve (agri) BV and, through these companies, is a farmer and landscaper in the Amsterdam region.
Since 2021, Struunhoeve Agri has been active with paludiculture farming on 5 hectares in the Burkmeer polder. Over the past 50 years, Struunhoeve has gained extensive experience mowing peat moss fields and marsh marigold meadows. It also participates as a contractor in various water management issues in this region for the water board and municipality.
Within Palus Demos, he will work with Aldert van Weeren and Adriaan Hellemans on Work Package 1: the roadmap; and as well as to the roadmap work on the transformation, rewetting, cultivation, management, and harvesting of the Dutch “large-scale paludiculture site” Burkmeer (55 hectares).
Find him on LinkedIn.