Guidance and other assessment methodology documents

A comprehensive body of EFSA scientific assessment practices guides and supports our experts in ensuring that EFSA’s opinions and reports respect the highest scientific standards.

This body of best practice covers both the scientific and procedural aspects of EFSA’s scientific assessment workflow. They define the scientific rationale for evaluations and important scientific considerations such as data needs and formats, study design requirements and reporting standards.

• Cross-cutting guidance – guidance of the Scientific Committee/EFSA on broad assessment principles (e.g. uncertainty analysis, statistical reporting, structure of outputs) that apply to all or most of EFSA’s scientific areas.
• Sector-specific guidance documents – guidance of the Scientific Panels or EFSA units used by EFSA scientists, other scientific bodies and our stakeholders, particularly applicants who submit dossiers for scientific evaluation.
• Other assessment methodologies – produced by EFSA scientific staff and peer-reviewed by independent experts, these can include methodological approaches and procedures, “state-of-the-science” reviews of international assessment best practices, as well as reviews of new and developing assessment tools.

We continually seek to build on these practices and develop further guidance, recommendations and processes to keep pace with international scientific developments and regulatory science needs.