On October 31, 2016 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a technical report entitled “Analysis of EFSA methodological needs for evidence use in scientific assessments.” The report is part of EFSA’s PROMETHEUS (PROmoting METhods for Evidence Use in Scientific assessments) project, aiming “to improve the methods for ‘using’ (i.e. collecting, appraising and analyzing) scientific evidence in EFSA scientific assessments and increasing consistency within the Authority.” In order to determine the methodological needs for evidence use within EFSA, the PROMETHEUS working group (WG) undertook a survey of the views of EFSA’s panel members and scientific staff from December 2015 to March 2016. The “clear needs” identified by the WG include the followings aspects: 1) “Panel-specific training in uncertainty assessment . . . and technical support from specialists in uncertainty assessment,” 2) “further description . . . of the methods to be applied by applicants for dealing with ‘already existing’ data,” and 3) “specialized training for EFSA staff in protocol development, literature search techniques, evidence appraisal and statistics.”
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EFSA (October 31, 2016). “Analysis of EFSA methodological needs for evidence use in scientific assessments.”
EFSA (June 3, 2015). “Principles and process for dealing with data and evidence in scientific assessments.”
