Independent science advisory group of the European Commission get underway

New scientific advice mechanism of the European Commission, or SAM, was officially launched this week, with the announcement of seven leading scientists who will form the first group of high-level scientific advisors.

Seven members of the High Level Group were selected following an open call for nominations and recommendations of an independent Identification Committee.

They Janus M Bujnicki, professor and head of the Laboratory of bioinformatics and protein engineering, the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Warsaw, Poland; Pearl Dykstra, Professor of Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Elvira Fortuna to, a professor in the materials science department of the Faculty of Science and Technology, NOVA University, Lisbon, Portugal; Rolf-Dieter Hewer, Director General, European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, or; Julia Slings, Chief Scientist, Met Office, Exeter, United Kingdom; Cerci Villains, director of the Henri Poincare Institute, Paris, France; Henry C. Wegener, Executive Vice President, Chief Academic Officer and director, Technical University of Denmark.

The objective scientific advice mechanism to ensure that the Commission has access to the best possible scientific advice, regardless of institutional or political interests.

According to the Commission, the launch of the SAM, together with € 6 million (US $ 6.5 million) of support for the European academies and learned societies, means "a new approach to the use of independent scientific advice to the Commission policy making."

It will gather evidence and insights from different disciplines and approaches that take into account the specific EU policy, and to ensure transparency.

It will complement the house science service Joint Research Centre and the existing expert committees. The first meeting of the Group will be held in January 2016 ..

SAM was launched six months after it was first announced by European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker and Carlos Meads, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation in May 2015. It draws on the experiences of Member States and throughout the world, and is based on a high Level Group of independent scientific advisor and a stronger relationship with national academies and other bodies.

Meads said: "I am delighted that the Scientific Advisory Mechanism is now up and running support from the scientific community is huge with many eminent scientists who come forward to help ..

"Seven exceptional scientists was appointed group will use independent scientific advice to the Commission policy-making on a new level. The European Commission will rely on their independent advice on a range of complex policy issues that require scientific input at a high level."

More than 150 names were originally put forward for membership of the High Level Group.

Modes said in a speech in September that the creation of a mechanism will help ensure that decisions about the safety of new drugs, new foods, new technologies and so on, based on facts, not fiction.

"We want to ensure we take the right decisions in a crisis. We want to ensure that the evidence on which to base our decisions is robust and impartial," he said.