Deadline: 15-Mar-23
The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals for European Food Risk Assessment Fellowship (EU-FORA) Programme.
Scope
- The European Food Risk Assessment Fellowship (EU-FORA) Programme was established to help achieve one of EFSA’s strategic objectives: Strengthening the food risk assessment capacity (including animal health and plant health) and knowledge community across Europe. The EU-FORA programme will establish a regular 12-month learning-by-doing fellowship, the objectives of which are to attract and motivate mid-career professionals to become risk assessors, thus increasing the pool of experts available in Europe; intensify exchange and cooperation among national food safety agencies and EFSA, hence stimulating the involvement of MS in regulatory risk assessment work; contribute to harmonising and further developing food safety risk assessment practices and methodologies across Europe, with the aim of building a common EU culture for risk assessment.
- The main focus of the EU-FORA fellowship programme will be targeted to chemical and microbiological risk assessment and, more generally, to activities falling within EFSA’s remit, so as to attract professionals from relevant fields such as: agriculture, biochemistry, bioinformatics, biology, biometrics, biotechnology, chemistry, dietary exposure, environmental sciences, epidemiology, food science, food technology, genetics, health and food safety, human medicine, life sciences, mathematics, microbiology, molecular biology, natural sciences, nutrition, pharmacy, public health, statistics, toxicology, veterinary medicine or related areas.
Objectives
The EU-FORA programme will establish a regular 12-month learning-by-doing fellowship, the objectives of which are to:
- attract and motivate mid-career professionals to become risk assessors, thus increasing the pool of experts available in Europe;
- intensify exchange and cooperation among national food safety agencies and EFSA, hence stimulating the involvement of MS in regulatory risk assessment work;
- contribute to harmonising and further developing food safety risk assessment practices and methodologies across Europe, with the aim of building a common EU culture for risk assessment;
Modules
The modules will be composed as follows:
- Induction training (3 weeks) at the start of the programme in September 2023, at EFSA’s premises in Parma, Italy
- Four specific modules spread over the remainder of the 12-month period:
- Module 1 (one week – estimated December 2023, virtual) covering:
- Animal Health and Welfare
- GMO
- Plant Health
- Nutrition
- Regulated Products
- Environmental Risk Assessment
- Module 2 (one week – estimated March 2024, virtual) covering:
- Emerging risks
- Nanotechnology
- Risk ranking
- Adverse Outcome Path (AOP), Mode of Action (MoA) and the IATA approach
- Module 3 (one week – estimated June 2024, at EFSA’s premises in Parma, Italy23) covering:
- Introduction to Risk Communication and Crisis Response
- Risk perception
- Risk participation
- “Hands on” Risk Communication
- Module 4 (one week – estimated August 2024, virtual) covering:
- General introduction and Legislative background of data collection
- Guidance documents for data reporting
- Data models
- Catalogues and reporting tools
- Data validation
- Module 1 (one week – estimated December 2023, virtual) covering:
Funding Information
- The total amount EFSA has available to award grants under this call for proposals is € 825,000, based on a total amount per grant (for each fellow) of € 55,000.
- The maximum duration of this Direct Agreement is 12 months from the start of the induction training, which usually takes place the first week of September.
Obligations and Benefits
- becoming a fellow hosting site
- Obligations: The fellow hosting site is responsible for the design of the work programme, its implementation and the overall training of the fellow.
- Benefits
- As a fellow hosting site, your organisation will have the opportunity to (1) profit from the skills and knowledge a fellow will bring from his/her institution of origin; (2) understand the issues and perspectives of colleagues in other countries; (3) strengthen bilateral co-operations with other institutions. Moreover, during the 12-month fellowship, the fellow will become part of the scientific workforce of the fellow hosting site, contributing to their tasks and activities.
- The fellow hosting site will also benefit from the participation of the appointed supervisor(s) to the EU-FORA Community and the publication of the technical summary report of the work performed by the fellow under the proposed work programme in a special issue of the EFSA journal.
- Additionally, all the material produced by the training contractor’s team for the modular training throughout the year may be used also for teaching purposes in the fellow hosting sites.
- fellow hosting site supervisor
- Obligations: The fellow hosting site will assign a supervisor to each fellow hosted.
- Benefits
- The supervisor will have the opportunity to work closely with EFSA and will become part of the EUFORA Community. S/he may also appreciate getting to know colleagues from across Europe, build a common forum with other hosting site supervisors to exchange experience and best practice as well as supporting and promoting promising talents in the food risk assessment community. S/he may also embrace the opportunity to pave the road to success for a spirited colleague in the early stages of his/her risk assessment career.
- becoming a fellow sending organization
- Obligations: Sending organisations are encouraged to identify in the proposal an alternate fellow as potential replacement in case of drop-out of the programme by the originally proposed fellow.
- Benefits
- The organisation of origin of the fellow will benefit from (1) the knowledge and experience in different aspects of food safety risk assessment that the fellow will acquire and bring back after the completion of the programme; (2) the direct contacts established with the fellow hosting site; (3) the publication of a technical summary report of the scientific work performed under the Programme in a special issue of the EFSA journal; and (4) the use of the EU-FORA Alumni network of which the fellow becomes a member.
- Additionally, all the material produced by the training contractor’s team for the modular training throughout the year may be used also for teaching purposes in the fellow sending institution.
- becoming a fellow
- Obligations: Fellows shall continue to be paid by their employer (sending institution) during the totality of the fellowship. Attendance to EU-FORA induction training and training modules is mandatory, and both hosting site and institution of origin shall facilitate this.
- Benefits
- With the participation in the fellowship programme, fellows will gain an extended and practical knowledge of scientific aspects related to food safety risk assessment, such as how to collect and analyse relevant data, how to select and apply risk assessment methodologies, how to use computer models in risk assessment, or how to provide effective risk communication.
- Fellows will be inspired by the many interesting, innovative and enthusiastic people of the food risk assessment knowledge community they will meet during the 12-month period. They will stay in touch with these colleagues and actively shape the EU-FORA Alumni network and, subsequently, the EUFORA Community.
- The fellow’s participation in the programme will be rewarded by a certificate of participation issued by EFSA and technical summary report of their scientific work may be published in a special issue of the EFSA journal.
Eligibility Criteria
- Expected workshop participants:
- Fellow hosting site supervisors
- Appointed Fellows
- Training contractor’s project team
- Representatives of the EU-FORA Alumni.
- EFSA’s Programme coordinators
- To be eligible, applicants must be on the list of competent organisations designated by the Member States in accordance with Article 36 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002 and Commission Regulation (EC) 2230/2004.
- In order to achieve the main objective of the call, proposals must be submitted by a consortium of two eligible organisations from two different EU countries. Norway or Iceland. One of the partners must be identified in the proposal as the consortium leader. The applicant (consortium leader) is responsible for identifying consortium partners. The fellow hosting site will be the consortium leader (applicant) and will propose a work programme and be responsible of the training of the fellow. The other partner in the consortium is the fellow sending organisation and will propose a fellow to be trained under the proposal.
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