The Scientific Advice Mechanism is a service created by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

which provides independent science advice on request directly to European Commissioners. The Mechanism consists of three parts: the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, an expert group consisting of up to seven leading scientists; SAPEA, a consortium of five European academy networks collectively representing around 120

academies An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and learned societies across

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

; and a unit within the European Commission (Unit RTD.02 Science Policy, Advice and Ethics) which serves as a secretariat to the Advisors.

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, Unit RTD.02, informally known as the "SAM Unit", staffed by the

Directorate-General for Research and Innovation The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, located in Brussels, and responsible for the European Union's research and innovation policy and coordination of research and innovati ...

and

Joint Research Centre The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission's science and knowledge service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to European Union (EU) policy. Leadersh ...

. 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 (2015–2016) * Henrik Wegener (2015–2017) *

Cédric Villani Cédric Patrice Thierry Villani (; born 5 October 1973) is a French politician and mathematician working primarily on partial differential equations, Riemannian geometry and mathematical physics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2010, and he ...

(2015–2017) * Janusz Bujnicki (2015–2020) * Pearl Dykstra (2015-2020) * Rolf-Dieter Heuer (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 ...

(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) *

Éva Kondorosi Éva Kondorosi, (born 1948) is a Hungarian-French biochemist who is known for her work on Rhizobium-legume symbiosis. She has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2010. In 2015 she became a member of the German Academy of Scien ...

(2020-2023) *

Maarja Kruusmaa Maarja Kruusmaa (maiden name Maarja Sink; born 4 January 1970) is an Estonian computer scientist, professor at Tallinn University of Technology, vice-rector for research and head of the biorobotics center at that university. Her main research are ...

(2020-2024) *

Alberto Melloni Alberto Melloni (Reggio nell'Emilia, 6 January 1959) is an Italian church historian and a Unesco Chairholder of the Chair on Religious Pluralism & Peace, primarily known for his work on the Councils and the Second Vatican Council. Since 2020, he is ...

(2020-2024) *

Nicole Grobert Nicole Grobert FRSC FYAE is a German-British materials chemist. She is a professor of nanomaterials at the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and a Royal Society industry fellow at ...

(2018–2025) *

Eric Lambin Eric Lambin (born 23 September 1962) is a Belgian geographer. He is a professor at the Université catholique de Louvain and Stanford University. From 1999 to 2005, he was Chair of the Land Use and Land Cover Change (LUCC) project (a joint initia ...

(2021–2025) *

Eva Zažímalová Eva Zažímalová (born 18 February 1955) is a Czech biochemist and from March 2017 to March 2025 the president of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Between 2020 and 2025, Zažimalová served as a Chief Scientific Advisor to the European Commissio ...

(2021–2025) * Nebojša Nakićenović (2020–2025)

SAPEA

SAPEA brings together around 120

, 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 experts from some 40 countries across Europe, spanning the disciplines of engineering, humanities, medicine, natural sciences and social sciences. The SAPEA consortium brings together six umbrella networks jointly representing Europe's academies: *

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

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 of ...

* European Academies Science Advisory Council * European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering * Federation of European Academies of Medicine * Young Academies Science Advice Structure At present, SAPEA is funded by a grant from the European Union's

Horizon Europe Horizon Europe is a seven-year European Union scientific research initiative to help develop a sustainable and livable society in Europe. It is the ninth of the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FP9), and the succe ...

programme through to May 2029.

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:

History

Until 2016, science advice in the

was provided by a single Chief Scientific Advisor who reported directly to the

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission, also known as president of the College of Commissioners is the Head of government, head of the European Commission, the Executive (government), executive branch of the European Union (EU). The president ...

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

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who was List of prime ministers of Luxembourg, prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also was List ...

asked

Carlos Moedas Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas (born 10 August 1970) is a Portuguese civil engineer, economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (Portugal), Social Democratic Party (PSD), who is the current Mayor of Lisbon. From 2014 until 2019, Moeda ...

, 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. Its funding was renewed in 2020 and again in 2025.

References

External links

Scientific Advice Mechanism

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