The question of who provides scientific advice to policy-makers at the European Commission is challenging and controversial. While the EU promotes science to support innovation and economic growth, using science for ‘evidence-based’ public policy remains work in progress. Civil society organisations need to discuss how independent science advice can best be provided for decision-making.
Science advice for health policy: shoot the messenger?
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Guest editorial by Professor Mark McCarthy, EPHA scientific adviser on research
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Three years ago the European Commission (EC) created the role Chief Scientific Adviser to give independent advice to the EC President, and appointed Anne Glover, a professor of molecular biology in Edinburgh and former Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for Scotland. In the summer last year, environment and health NGOs wrote to Mr Jean-Claude Junker, as president-elect, to ‘scrap’ the post, claiming it was ‘unaccountable, intransparent and controversial’. The NGOs specifically identified Professor Glover’s statements on genetically modified organisms in agriculture, saying she gave “one-sided, partial opinions”. As president, Mr Juncker, has abolished the Chief Scientific Advisor post.
Professor Glover has recently spoken about her time as adviser. Her role was “science for policy and not policy for science”, so she was not involved in the EU’s research programmes such as Horizon 2020. But she did advise on the use of scientific evidence in policies, including (for health) Dengue, Ebola and food safety. She also found that science at European level is “dragged into a political battlefield” more than at national level, because EU policies are “mostly about standardisation and harmonisation”.
She agreed the need for the CSA in the future to have more transparency. With a minimal staff of three, she used a web page (in four languages) to disseminate her advice. And although not all European Commission directorates sought to work with her, the Director-General at DG Connect (digital science and technology) proved particularly supportive.
Health research has significantly influenced models of science advice. The ‘evidence’ approach now widely more used for policy came from the Cochrane Collaboration syntheses of scientific literature, interpreting and evaluating it. Health science national advisory bodies, with support from the European Commission’s Health Programme, have developed a European network (EuSANH). “By working together, we improve national advice,” said the group’s founding president, professor Louise Gunning-Scheppers.
EC Directorates-General have consultation mechanisms (with limitations), for example through advisory panels, ‘white’ papers and internet surveys, but may count the volume of responses rather than the quality. The EC’s Joint Research Centre undertakes research on programmed topics rather than making research syntheses, and is also bureaucratised.
In her three years, Professor Glover was able to create a network of Chief Scientific Advisers who act at national level, for half of all EU countries. In a similar way, the EC President should be able – and seek – to draw on independent scientific advice as well as the many avenues of lobbying and representation.
Civil society organisations, at both European and national levels, value health research. They wish to be involved in setting research agendas to investigate significant science questions and especially those providing an evidence base for decision-making and better practice. Where debate is polarised, civil society organisations need to discuss together how independent science advice can be best provided to public decision-makers – not to shoot the messenger.
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OTHER ARTICLES published on our website over the last weeks
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Members-only: EPHA Working Groups (WGs) 2015 & Policy Coordination Meetings (PCMs) 2015
