SAPEA – ‘Science Advice for Policy by European Academies’

EASAC is a member of the project consortium for SAPEA – ‘Science Advice for Policy by European Academies’.

SAPEA is part of the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM), which provides independent scientific advice to the College of European Commissioners to inform their decision-making. Working closely with the SAM High Level Group of Scientific Advisors (HLG), SAPEA provides timely, independent, and evidence-based scientific expertise for the highest policy level in Europe and for the wider public.

The project consortium of SAPEA consists of the five European academy networks Academia Europaea, ALLEA, EASAC, Euro-CASE, and FEAM. In bringing together the outstanding knowledge and expertise of Fellows from over 100 Academies, Young Academies, and Learned Societies in more than 40 countries across Europe, SAPEA spans the disciplines of engineering, humanities, medicine, natural sciences and social sciences, thus enabling multidisciplinary policy advice in an unprecedented fashion.

SAPEA convenes scientific experts for a broad range of topics, most often in response to direct requests for advice to SAM from European Commissioners. SAPEA has contributed to projects on Cybersecurity, New Techniques in Agricultural Biotechnology, and Food from the Oceans, and is currently (February 2018) working to provide scientific input on Authorisation of Plant Protection Products in Europe and on Novel Carbon Capture and Utilization Technologies. The resulting SAPEA Evidence Review Reports will form the basis of the High Level Group ‘Scientific Opinions’ on these issues, which are then handed directly to the Commissioner that requested the advice of SAM.

The project SAPEA is funded through a grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and runs from October 2016 until December 2021.