Public consultation on draft ‘Guidance on Communication of Uncertainty in Scientific Assessments’

EFSA has launched an open consultation on a draft ‘Guidance on Communication of Uncertainty in Scientific Assessments’. This document provides guidance on how to communicate the various expressions of uncertainty from the uncertainty analyses described in EFSA’s Guidance document on uncertainty analysis in scientific assessment. It also contains specific guidance for assessors on how best to report the various expressions of uncertainty from their uncertainty analyses.

EFSA would like to receive feedback on this draft approach to communicating uncertainty from practitioners, experts and officials who are involved in science communication and risk communication:

• Science communicators such as writers, editors, journalists, press and public information officers, in particular on Section 3 containing the practical guidance for communicating uncertainty: how understandable and easy to follow is it? Could you use such a document? and if not how could it be made more usable?
• Social scientists/academics focused on communication of scientific uncertainties: is there any additional research (meeting our selection criteria) on different audience understandings of probabilities, understanding of verbal vs numerical information, use and understanding of hedging words, visuals for communicating uncertainty?
• Decision-makers, scientific assessors, stakeholders from the food safety and public health areas who use EFSA’s communications or those of other scientific advisory bodies at national, European or international level: do you have any insights or experience to help improve our approach, how can this approach be adapted to help you better understand or explain the results of an uncertainty analysis?

Interested parties are invited to submit written comments by 24 June 2018. Please use the electronic template provided in this link to submit comments.

If you would like to submit additional data to support your comments or file send an email to: com.publicconsult.EUS.001 [at] efsa.europa.eu

Please note that comments will not be considered if they:

• are submitted after the closing date of the public consultation 
• are presented in any form other than what is provided for in the instructions and template
• are not related to the contents of the document
• contain complaints against institutions, personal accusations, irrelevant or offensive statements or material
• are related to policy or risk management aspects, which is out of the scope of EFSA's activity.

EFSA will assess all comments from interested parties which are submitted in line with the criteria above. The comments will be further considered by the relevant EFSA Panel and taken into consideration if found to be relevant.

All comments submitted will be published. Comments submitted by individuals in a personal capacity will be presented anonymously. Comments submitted formally on behalf of an organisation will appear with the name of the organisation.