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BfR, DTU and Anses enter into cooperation agreement

19/2010, 17.12.2010

Close scientific cooperation and joint research projects on risk assessment planned

On 7 December 2010 the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the French Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (Anses) and the Food Institute of the Danish Tekniske Universitet (DTU) signed a cooperation agreement. The objective of the German-French-Danish cooperation is to render the joint activities in the field of food safety, also on the European level, even more effective and efficient than in the past. "We want to establish a strong network of risk assessment specialists in our institutions to ensure a rapid exchange of scientific findings in Europe", said BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel at the signing of the agreement in Copenhagen, "in particular in the event of a food crisis we have to rely on the competency and excellence of our colleagues."

The German BfR, the French Anses and the Danish DTU have similar tasks and implement comparable concepts in the field of scientific risk assessment on the basis of active research work. Cooperation within a joint structural framework to avoid the duplication of work is, therefore, an obvious solution.

The cooperation agreement permits the development of formal cooperation between BfR, Anses and DTU in scientific risk assessment and research as well as technical and administrative cooperation in these fields. To that end each institution will first set up a working group with three members, which will take over the coordination of the joint activities. These coordination groups will pool expert knowledge in the fields of risk assessment, communication and research as well as science-based risk communication. They are to meet once a year, alternately in Germany, France and Denmark; they will suggest joint projects and activities for the next year and evaluate ongoing activities. The first working project is a detailed plan on possible cooperation projects and their contents. They are to include joint projects involving laboratories, research institutions and experts from the three countries, the exchange of scientific journals in the field of food safety, early mutual information about scientific opinions and about the strategic annual work schedules.

About BfR

The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is a scientific institution within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). It advises the Federal Government and Federal Laender on questions of food, chemical and product safety. BfR engages in research on topics that are closely linked to its assessment tasks.

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