Charles Spillane

Charles Spillane is the FAO Chief Scientist within the Core Leadership Team^[1] of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Prior to joining FAO in January 2026, he has been the Established Professor (Chair) of Plant Science (since 2009), and the Founder and Leader of the Agriculture, Food Systems, and Bioeconomy Research Centre^[7] at the University of Galway, Ireland.

Between 2016 to 2024, he was the Director of the interdisciplinary Ryan Institute^[8] at the University of Galway, expanding the research institute to over 100 research groups and over €12 million per annum in competitive research funding.

In partnership with the CGIAR's Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) CRP program, he established in 2014 the award winning MSc in Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (MScCCAFS) program, training over 200 graduates in climate action for agriculture and food security globally.

With an interdisciplinary scientific career agricultural agricultural research with sustainable development and poverty reduction, since the 1990s, Spillane has worked extensively with the CGIAR system, UN agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP) and international NGOs on agricultural research for development.

Since 2003, Spillane has led his interdisciplinary AgriBiosciences, Food Security and Climate Change^[9] research group, publishing over 260 research papers,^[10] funded by over €30 million in competitive research funding. He has trained and supervised over 270 early-stage researchers (50 PhDs, 24 Postdocs, over 200 Masters). His research group has conducted crop and agricultural research for development projects, partnerships and activities with partners across over 60 countries worldwide.

After graduating from Dublin City University with a BSc in Biotechnology, Spillane completed his PhD in plant genetic engineering with Tony Kavanagh in the Genetics Dept, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His PhD research was focused on development of novel pathogen-derived resistance strategies against singe-stranded RNA viruses such as potato virus X.

After completing his Ph.D., Spillane worked as a Research Assistant in the group of David Baulcombe, Sainsbury Lab, John Innes Centre, Norwich. The fundamental and applied research on plant viruses during this time in Baulcombe's group contributed to significant discoveries of epigenetic gene silencing, and ultimately to the phenomenon of RNA-mediated gene silencing in plants. Parallel work on the functionally related phenomenon of RNAi in the nematode C. elegans, led to Andrew Fire and Craig Mello being awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Towards the end of his PhD, Spillane founded the Irish Genetic Resources Conservation Trust (IGRCT), a charitable NGO for the conservation of plant and animal genetic resources in Ireland. The IGRCT supported the establishment of the Irish Seed Savers Network, the rescue of the Galway sheep breed, the collection of threatened IUCN Red List crop wild relatives, the conservation of Irish apple varieties, and the establishment of the Irish Threatened Plant Seedbank.^[11]

Between 1995-1998, Spillane worked at the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. How work on technical and policy topics relating to genetic resources and biotechnology, supported the Member State negotiations of the International Treaty on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2001). At FAO, he was a key member of the team that researched and developed of the 1^st State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Report (1998). During this time, Spillane also worked for Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Centers such as IPGRI and CIAT^[12] on crop genetic resources (core collections, national plans) and on farmer participatory plant biotechnology, and with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on biosafety.

From 1998 to 2003 Spillane worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Ueli Grossniklaus on plant epigenetics (genomic imprinting) and apomixis technology development at the Delbruck Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), New York, USA, the Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland, and at the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology,^[13] University of Zürich, Switzerland.

In 2003, funded by a Science Foundation Ireland (now Research Ireland) Investigator grant, Spillane established his research group in University College Cork, Ireland, working on plant epigenetics and biotechnology. During this period, he was a member of the interdisciplinary Leonardo Group advising the groundbreaking Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin.

In 2009, Spillane moved his research group to the University of Galway, as the Established Professor (Chair) of Plant Science. He was Head of Discipline of Botany & Plant Science (2009 – 2014) at the university. In 2017, Spillane was appointed as Director of the interdisciplinary Ryan Institute,^[14][15] the university's largest interdisciplinary research institute focused on research for sustainability outcomes.

At the University of Galway, Spillane established the MSc Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (MScCCAFS)^[16] program, and the MSc AgriFood Sustainability and Technology (MScAST)^[17] program. He further co-founded (with Cathal O'Donoghue) the BSc degree in Agricultural Sciences^[18] at the University of Galway, which has a strong emphasis on agrifood sustainability.

Between 2017 – 2024, Spillane supported (via the University of Galway's Ryan Instiute) the CLIFF-GRADS^[19] fellowship program, a joint initiative of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA),^[20] the CGIAR's Climate Action Science Program, and the Global Methane Hub (GMH),^[21] to enable early career scientists from low- and middle-income countries to conduct applied research in agriculture greenhouse gas emission quantification and mitigation.

Spillane is a co-founder of (and was Chair of until January 2026) the Irish Forum for International Agricultural Development (IFIAD)^[22] which is a national multi-stakeholder platform comprising all organisations in Ireland engaged in international agricultural development activities (government Ministries, state agencies, universities, NGOs, farmer organisations).^[23]

Between 2024-2026, Spillane was a member of Board of Trustees of the CGIAR's International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.^[24]

Over the past three decades, Spillane's inter-disciplinary AgriBiosciences, Food Security & Climate Resilience Research Group has worked on a wide range of agricultural research for development topics^[25] including crop genetics, epigenetics and biotechnology, climate change, biofortification/nutrition, food systems, gender empowerment, satellite remote sensing, labour-saving technologies and climate smart agriculture, with a particular focus on smallholder farmers. Spillane has extensive interdisciplinary knowledge of agrisciences for development and international development, including partnership building and stakeholder engagement processes.

In January 2026, Spillane began working within the Core Leadership Team of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as the FAO Chief Scientist.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Spillane is married to Una Murray,^[26][27] an Associate Professor in international development working with the University of Galway,^[27] and with a wide range of United Nations agencies on topics^[28] such as gender, social inclusion, just transitions and green skills. The couple have two daughters, Shauna and Rian.