Karl completed his undergraduate degree in Public Administration and French at the University of Limerick, and a Masters in European Integration with Public Policy at The Queen’s University of Belfast. He then took a post as a researcher with Professor Claudio Radaelli at The Centre for Regulatory Governance at the University of Exeter and subsequently with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) in London. His experience and research have been policy oriented; examining how the decision-making structures of the civil service can be optimised. His interests include conflict management/resolution, public policy, bureaucrat behaviour, Q Methodology and European committee governance. Funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) project: Conflict in Cities and the Contested State, supported Karl in completing his PhD thesis entitled: ‘Sustaining power-sharing: the bureaucracy, the bureaucrat and conflict management’ (University of Exeter).