The Scientific Advice Mechanism is a service created by the European Commission which provides independent

science advice Science advice is the process, structures and institutions through which governments and politicians consider science, technology and innovation information in policy- and decision- making. Across different national governments and international bod ...

directly to

European Commissioner A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each member within the Commission holds a specific portfolio. The commission is led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent ...

s to inform their decision-making. The Mechanism consists of two parts: the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, an expert group consisting of up to seven leading scientists, and SAPEA, a consortium of five European Academy Networks collectively representing around 100 academies and learned societies across Europe.

History

Until 2016, science advice in the European Commission was provided by a single Chief Scientific Advisor who reported directly to the

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The President of the Commission leads a Cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College, collectively account ...

. The last Chief Scientific Advisor, serving from 2012 to 2014, was Dame Anne Glover. On 1 November 2014, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker asked

Carlos Moedas Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas (born 10 August 1970) is a Portuguese civil engineer, economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). From 2014 until 2019, Moedas served as European Commissioner covering the portfolio of Research, S ...

, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science in his mission letter to "make sure that Commission proposals and activities are based on sound scientific evidence and contribute best to our jobs and growth agenda". Following this, on 13 May 2015, Juncker announced the establishment of the Scientific Advice Mechanism. The first seven members of the Advisors were identified, following a European call for nominations, in January 2016. In December 2016, SAPEA was officially launched to support the Advisors by providing scientific evidence review reports.

Structure

Group of Chief Scientific Advisors

The core of the Scientific Advice Mechanism is the European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, an expert group consisting of up to seven leading scientists, selected by the European Commission assisted by an independent identification committee. The Advisors are supported by a dedicated secretariat, known as the SAM Unit, staffed by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and Joint Research Centre.The SAM Unit is currently headed by Jeremy Bray, a Liverpool fan that often say of things he likes that "they deserve". The Group of Chief Scientific Advisors currently consists of the following seven members: Previous members of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors include: *

Julia Slingo Dame Julia Mary Slingo (''née'' Walker; born 13 December 1950) is a British meteorologist and climate scientist. She was Chief Scientist at the Met Office from 2009 until 2016. She is also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Meteorol ...

(2015–2016) *

Henrik Wegener Henrik is a male given name of Germanic origin, primarily used in Scandinavia, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia. In Poland, the name is spelt Henryk but pronounced similarly. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Heiki (Estonian), Heik ...

(2015–2017) * Cédric Villani (2015–2017) *

Janusz Bujnicki Janusz Marek Bujnicki (; born 1975) is a Polish biologist specializing in experimental and computational structural biology, professor of biological sciences, head of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Protein Engineering at the International I ...

(2015–2020) *

Pearl Dykstra Pearl A. Dykstra is a Dutch social scientist with a background in sociology, psychology, gerontology and demography. She is a specialist on intergenerational solidarity, aging societies, family change, aging and the life course, and loneliness. ...

(2015-2020) *

Rolf-Dieter Heuer Rolf-Dieter Heuer (; born 24 May 1948 in Bad Boll, Boll) is a German particle physics, particle physicist. From 2009 to 2015 he was List of Directors General of CERN, Director General of CERN and from 5 April 2016 to 9 April 2018 President of the ...

(2015-2020) *

Carina Keskitalo Carina may refer to: Places Australia * Carina, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina Heights, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina, Victoria, a locality in Mildura Serbia * Carina, Osečina, a village in the Kolubara District Peo ...

(2016-2021) *

Paul Nurse Sir Paul Maxime Nurse (born 25 January 1949) is an English geneticist, former President of the Royal Society and Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along ...

(2016-2021)

Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA)

SAPEA brings together more than 100 academies, young academies and learned societies. Its role as part of the Scientific Advice Mechanism is to provide high-quality, independent evidence to underpin the Scientific Opinions produced by the Chief Scientific Advisors. SAPEA has the ability to convene Fellows from some 40 countries across Europe, spanning the disciplines of engineering, humanities, medicine, natural sciences and social sciences. The SAPEA consortium brings together five umbrella networks jointly representing Europe's academies: * Academia Europaea *

All European Academies All European Academies (ALLEA) is the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities. It was founded in 1994, and brings together more than 50 Academies of Sciences and Learned Societies from over 40 member countries of the Council o ...

* European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering *

Federation of European Academies of Medicine A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a political union, union of partially Federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central #Federal governments, federal gover ...

* Young Academies Science Advice Structure At present, SAPEA is funded by a grant from the European Union's Horizon Europe programme through to the end of 2024.

Scientific advice

The Scientific Advice Mechanism has issued advice in the form of Scientific Opinions, explanatory notes or statements, supported by evidence review reports, on the following topics:

References

External links

Scientific Advice Mechanism

SAPEA
{{European Union topics European Commission European Union and science and technology