Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

The Joint Research Centre is „the European Commission's science and knowledge service“ and supports EU policies with scientific evidence throughout the policy cycle.

The JRC draws on over 50 years of scientific experience and is spread across six sites in five different countries within the EU. The JRC is a Directorate-General of the European Commission under the responsibility of the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth & Sport.

Since 2010 EASAC has cooperated on specific projects with the Joint Research Centre (JRC), which is the In-house Science Service of the European Commission. At the time, the two organisations embarked together on a project about „The Impact of Engineered Nanomaterials on Human Health“. The joint report of that title was published in October of 2011 and JRC and EASAC used its launch event to sign a „Letter of Intent“ for closer collaboration, which was extended twice. In November 2017 JRC and EASAC signed a „Memorandum of Understanding“.

There are regular meetings between the Director-General of the JRC and the EASAC President, to exchange information about upcoming projects and to coordinate interests and activities. The JRC has sometimes been able to support regional communication events by EASAC member academies, to present and discuss the science-based analyses and recommendations produced in one of the joint projects.

The JRC and EASAC have collaborated on the following activities:

  • The Impact of Engineered Nanomaterials on Human Health
  • Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and its Waste
  • Marine Sustainability in an Age of Changing Oceans and Seas
  • Decarbonisation of Transport