Stef Bronzwaer, MD, MPH, PhD
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy

The mission of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is to provide risk assessment on matters related to food and feed safety and to communicate on these risks. To achieve such a demanding task EFSA cannot, and does not, work in isolation. Cooperation with partners in Member States and globally has been important since EFSA’s inception. Over the years several tools, activities, and networks have been established to structure networking and cooperation.

The speaker will present a recent instrument to boost research and cooperation throughout the EU. EFSA, together with national research and public organisations, identified priority areas for research in food safety and risk assessment. Relying on the expertise in hundreds of organisations, this exercise resulted in the EU Risk Assessment Agenda (EURAA), a dynamic list of common priorities for research and funding, in support of EFSA’s Strategy 2020. The EU RAA sets out common priorities with Member States that can be addressed through joint projects to support risk assessment of mid-to-long term nature.

EFSA may support some of these priorities through it Grants, and actively works with Member State authorities to influence research agendas, so to secure appropriate public funding for food safety. EFSA is preparing a large one-day event in February 2018 to further support national organisations, aiming at:

• providing a platform for networking, in particular to facilitate partnering and identification of project funding; and
• raising awareness of the importance of public funding for food safety to stimulate future public funding for food safety.

Coordinating work in this area aims not to uphold food safety for the more than 500 million consumers in the European Union, but will allow making best use of limited public funding.