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It has been announced that rather than having a chief scientific adviser to the president of the European Commission as in the past, a panel of experts will be appointed to provide scientific advice to the Commission.
Prof Nigel Brown, President, Society for General Microbiology, said:
“I welcome the news that the European Commission will once again receive independent and evidence-based scientific advice following the short-sighted decision to abolish the post of Chief Scientific Advisor.
The significant reduction in the Horizon 2020 budget and the abolition of the CSA post suggested that the Commission did not value science. It is essential in modern society that new developments in science are taken into account and that political decisions are made on the basis of expert evaluation of current knowledge.
By forming a panel, the Commission will minimise the opportunity for partisan critics to dismiss the advice as biased.”
Ms Tracey Brown, Director, Sense About Science, said:
“If the European science and social science academies will be more involved in scrutinising and applying evidence to European policy, we might see some improvements in the reasoning behind policies. But committees lack some important features of individual advisers: there are much vaguer lines of personal responsibility and accountability, and committees in general are at risk of being conservative, reaching conclusions that no one member stands behind and consensus that doesn’t really exist. They are also more obscure to the wider public. Whether this panel can counter that under the proposed new system, through individuals being proactive and taking discussions about policy out into the public domain, is not clear. What is clear is that the chain of reasoning for European regulation and policy needs to be more evidence based and less obscure to citizens who want to know how decisions have been reached and whether evidence supports them.”
Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, said:
“Europe will only punch its full weight as a scientific superpower, and choose wise priorities in major applications of science, if decisions are based on the best advice. This advice must be gathered from leading experts — and, more important, it must be heeded by the Commission. This initiative is at least a step in the right direction.”
Professor Sir Mark Walport, Government Chief Scientific Advisor said:
“It is important to recognise that there is no single mechanism for the provision of scientific advice and I welcome that the Commission is seeking high level, independent scientific advice. I look forward to its effective implementation.”
Prof. James Wilsdon, Professor of Science and Democracy, University of Sussex, said:
“After six months in limbo, it’s welcome news that the Commission will today announce its plans for the future of scientific advice. A high level group, properly resourced, with links to national academies and learned societies could work well. But the devil will be in the detail of who sits on the panel, how it links to bodies like the JRC, and what mechanisms it uses to tap into the full richness of scientific, engineering and social scientific expertise across Europe. I hope the Commission now moves swiftly to implement these proposals, so that the new group is up and running at full speed before the end of the year.”
Declared interests
None declared