Public consultation on Guidance on The Use of the Weight of Evidence Approach in Scientific Assessments

EFSA’s Scientific Committee has developed a draft guidance document on the use of the weight of evidence approach in scientific assessments for use in all areas under EFSA’s remit.  The guidance document addresses the use of the weight of evidence in scientific assessments using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Several case studies covering the various areas under EFSA’s remit are annexed to the guidance document to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach.  Following this public consultation, the scientific committee will review the contributions and consider them in developing the final version of the guidance document.

In line with EFSA’s policy on openness and transparency and in order for EFSA to receive comments from the scientific community and stakeholders, EFSA has launched public consultations on this draft document. Interested parties are invited to submit written comments by 1 May 2017.

Please use the electronic template provided to submit comments and refer to the line and page numbers of the respective document. A generic comments field is also available in this online tool. Please note that after 2 hours non-activity, your working session will expire and comments submitted after that time will not be recorded and transmitted.  Therefore, if the page is left inactive for a while, before restart commenting, we advise you to refresh or re-open the page from the link.

If you would like to submit data-sets to support your comments or submit files send an email to: SCER.PublicConsult.86@efsa.europa.eu

Please note that comments will not be considered if they:

• are submitted after the closing date of the public consultation;
• 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 are 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 EFSA’s Scientific Committee and taken into consideration if found to be relevant.

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