The European Commission (EC) has launched its new scientific advice mechanism (SAM) with the announcement of seven “leading scientists” who will form the EC’s first “high level group” of scientific advisers.
The announcement comes one year after the controversial “scrapping” of the role of chief scientific adviser by EC president, Jean Claude Juncker, a move which the NFU described at the time as being “deeply troubling”.
While president Juncker’s decision ended the chief scientific adviser role provided by Scottish Professor, Anne Glover, the UK has gained a fresh adviser voice in Brussels with the naming of Met Office chief scientist, Professor Dame Julia Slingo, as part of the new seven-member body.
“I’m very proud to have been nominated and chosen to work with this new and innovative group,” said professor Slingo (pictured above). “My appointment acknowledges the importance of weather and climate science from across the national and European science communities at a time when resilience to environmental events, and the need for expert scientific advice and scrutiny, are of increasing importance.”
EU commissioner for research, science and innovation, Carlos Moedas, added: “The seven exceptional scientists I have appointed to the group will take the use of independent science advice in Commission policy-making to a new level. The EC will rely on their independent advice on a range of complex policy issues where high level scientific input is not currently available.”
The new high level group includes:
- Janusz M. Bujnicki: Professor, head of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Protein Engineering, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Warsaw
- Pearl Dykstra: Professor of Sociology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
- Elvira Fortunato: Professor, Materials Science Department of the Faculty of Science and Technology, NOVA University, Lisbon
- Rolf-Dieter Heuer: Director-General, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
- Julia Slingo: Chief Scientist, Met Office, Exeter
- Cédric Villani: Director, Henri Poincaré Institute, Paris
- Henrik C. Wegener: Executive vice president, chief academic officer and provost, Technical University of Denmark