Dr Leyla Knittweis participated in numerous international research projects. More recently these include the projects CREAM (ecosystem approach to fisheries management), GAP II (bridging the gap between scientists and fisheries stakeholders), MESMA (marine spatial planning), and MAREA-MEDISEH (Mediterranean sensitive habitats).

Dr Knittweis is currently involved in the ongoing projects LIFE BaĦAR for N2K (benthic habitat research for marine Natura 2000 site designation), MANTIS (Marine Protected Area networks towards sustainable fisheries in the central Mediterranean), and IDEM (implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive to the deep Mediterranean Sea).

Besides her participation in the above-mentioned international research projects, Dr. Knittweis is currently overseeing research on:

• discards generated by bottom otter trawling in the Central Mediterranean
• stock related biological variables and exploitation patterns of commercial target species in the Central Mediterranean based on fisheries-dependent / independent data
• the impacts of deep-sea fishing litter on benthic species
• intraspecific morphological variability in the family Rajidae. 

She is also contributing to a project on the characterisation of rhodolith beds in circalittoral waters off the south-eastern coast of the Maltese Islands by advising on the fisheries management implications of the results. 

Further information, including links to publications resulting from Dr Knittweis' research activities.