The Scientific Advice Mechanism is a service created by the European Commission which provides independent science advice on request directly to European Commissioners.[1]
The Mechanism consists of three parts: the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, an expert group consisting of up to seven leading scientists;[2] SAPEA, a consortium of five European academy networks collectively representing around 120 academies and learned societies across Europe;[3] and a unit within the European Commission (Unit RTD.02 Science Policy, Advice and Ethics) which serves as a secretariat to the Advisors.[4]
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 and Joint Research Centre.
The Group of Chief Scientific Advisors currently consists of the following six members, with one vacancy as of June 2023:
| Name | Portrait | Role in the Group | Academic position | University or institution | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [5] | Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences | Utrecht University | |||
| [6] | Chair | Professor of Nanomaterials | University of Oxford | ||
| [7] | Vice-rector for research and Professor of biorobotics | Tallinn University of Technology | |||
| [8] | Professor of Geography and Sustainability Science | Université catholique de Louvain and Stanford University | |||
| [9] | Professor of the history of Christianity; holder of the UNESCO Chair on Religious Pluralism and Peace | University of Modena/Reggio Emilia; University of Bologna | |||
| [10] | deputy chair | Director | The World in 2050 | ||
| [11] | Professor of Plant Anatomy and Physiology | Institute of Experimental Botany at the Czech Academy of Sciences |
Previous members of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors include:[12]
SAPEA brings together around 120 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:
At present, SAPEA is funded by a grant from the European Union's Horizon Europe programme through to the end of 2024.[18]
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:[19]
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 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, 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.