150 shortlisted for EC’s science advisory group

More than 150 names have been put forward for membership of the high level group of scientific advisors being created under a new system for providing independent scientific advice in European Commission, or EC, policy-making.

Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for research, science and innovation, said in a speech at the European Parliament last Tuesday that consultation for nominations has just closed and the response has been “extremely positive”.

An identification committee will now propose members by the end of October and the Commissioner expects the group to be up and running by the end of the year.

The role of the group will be to ensure that the Commission has the best available scientific advice, wherever it comes from,” he said. “It should guarantee the quality and independence of the advice provided. It should help identify topics where independent advice is needed.”

In his speech, Moedas stressed that independent scientific advice was needed to inform policy-makers.

“We want to be sure that decisions on the safety of new medicines, novel foods, new technologies and so on, are based on facts and not fiction. We want to ensure we take the right decisions in a crisis. We want to ensure that the evidence on which we base our decisions is robust and unbiased,” he said.

Referring to the progress in establishing the European Commission's new Scientific Advice Mechanism, or SAM, Moedas said there was no shortage of scientific evidence available to the commission: "With more than 2,000 scientists employed [in the Joint Research Centre], we have a greater in-house capability than most national governments around the world.”

"The Scientific Advice Mechanism will not try to replicate or duplicate the role of the JRC [Joint Research Centre]; its role will be to provide independent advice to the European Commission."

Moedas said the role of SAM would be to explain what the scientific evidence is telling us and what its limits are. Policy-makers need independent scientific advice. "The new mechanism is designed to tackle the demand and supply-side problems through a stronger relationship with scientific advisory bodies in Member States and the creation of a high-level group of independent scientists," he said.

When he took office, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker asked Moedas to work out a new mechanism for a scientific advisory function to the EC president. In early July, Moedas announced that Sir David King, former UK chief scientific adviser, together with Rianne Letschert of the Dutch Royal Young Academy of Sciences, and Antonio Vitorino, former European Commissioner, would assist the commission in selecting the people to participate in a seven-member high-level group within the advice mechanism.

The seven members would be selected during the autumn this year, with the group established by the end of the year. In the statement on the methodology for establishing the SAM, 12 organisations were singled out to be invited to submit nominations, including the European University Association, the League of European Research Universities, Science Europe and Business Europe.

Moedas said that more than 150 names had been put forward, including nominations from many prestigious scientific organisations.

Chief scientific adviser role

The previous system of having a chief scientific adviser was scrapped before the new president, Jean-Claude Juncker, took over. In 2014 a row erupted, with a media campaign against the first chief scientific adviser of the European Commission, Professor Dame Anne Glover, because of her comments on the scientific issue of the use of genetically modified crops.

Nine NGOs, including Greenpeace, wrote an open letter to the president-elect on 20 July asking that the position of chief scientific adviser be scrapped, stating that the position was “fundamentally problematic”.

Glover’s role had been to provide independent expert advice on science, technology and innovation on any issue requested by the commission president. She held the post from December 2011 until October 2014.

"Until now, the role of the chief scientific adviser has been unaccountable, non-transparent and controversial. The nature of her advice to the president of the European Commission remains unknown," the groups said.

However, campaigners defending Dame Glover’s role published an open letter signed by more than 40 organisations and 773 individuals, stating: "We cannot stress strongly enough our objections to any attempt to undermine the integrity and independence of scientific advice received at the highest level of the European Commission.

"Policy-makers or lobbyists who seek to remove scientists because they don't like their findings or advice do so at the peril of their citizens. European citizens need to be assured that there is access to independent scientific advice at the highest level and that this independence is not compromised.”

Dame Glover, who is now at the University of Aberdeen, told University World News: "I look forward to the announcement of the membership of the SAM.”

She said a great deal was achieved in the first three years of independent science advice in the EC, and it showed there was a very obvious appetite and demand for such advice across the commission and other European institutions from a very wide range of stakeholders.

"The key to the success of the SAM will be the independence of the group and the transparency of their working method as well as their accountability. I hope that those who criticised the first CSA [chief scientific adviser] position will work constructively with this new mechanism."

An important experiment

Professor Roger Pielke, director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado, told University World News that the SAM was a highly visible, important experiment in the design and implementation of a science advisory body and “a lot of people are watching carefully how this experiment goes”.

"The Commission already has an in-house science service in the Joint Research Centre so integrating the new SAM with the already existing commission expertise and capabilities, if successful, could really lead to a positive innovation in the advisory process.”

Kurt Deketelaere, secretary-general of the League of European Research Universities, said the league had submitted the names of 15 or so candidates for the high-level group and looked forward to a “clever selection” with “attention paid to creating a balanced composition taking into account disciplines, regions, gender and age, so that we have a representative group, really able to advise the EC in a clever way”.

“As I have said before, and comparing with movies, this could become ‘The Magnificent Seven’ or ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’! Of course, we would prefer The Magnificent Seven!”