Quality assurance

Following the Scientific Committee’s proposal for a three-part system to review the quality of EFSA’s scientific outputs, EFSA implemented in the first half of 2008, the first two components of this systematic review process, i.e. self-review and internal review in order to continually evaluate and strengthen the quality of its scientific work.

All scientific units complete a self-review form to guarantee a set of key steps is consistently followed in developing scientific opinions and other EFSA outputs. This includes ensuring:

• A shared understanding with the requester (usually the European Commission) of what is expected by the Terms of Reference and a realistic time frame for delivery.
• Approved Declarations of Interests are provided by all involved experts before work begins and harmonised procedures applied where potential conflicts are identified.
• All sources of information and scientific data are clearly described and referenced.
• Key studies are properly identified and reasons given for their selection, while implications of potentially contradictory data are discussed and any diverging views with other expert bodies are explained.
• Significant data gaps and underlying assumptions, limitations and uncertainties in data are identified and discussed.
• Summaries are adequately informative and reflect the conclusions/recommendations of the opinion.

A selection of the self-review process is double-checked by an internal review team which make comments and recommendations for further improvement. In addition, a working group of independent experts has been set up in order to carry out an external review. Their recommendations are being discussed with the appropriate parties and fed into the annual report of EFSA’s Quality Manager which is published on the EFSA website and is used by EFSA to strengthen and improve the quality of its working processes.