EU’s scientific community meets policy makers to boost collaboration and better regulation

Today, Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, responsible for the Joint Research Centre (JRC), is participating in the second edition of the ‘Science meets Parliaments’ initiative. This event brings together European and national parliamentarians, regional authorities, civil servants and leading scientists from across Europe to foster a regular dialogue between policy makers and the European scientific community. ‘Science meets Parliaments’ is also in line with the European Commission’s efforts to foster ‘better regulation’ principles and practices, by promoting the use of evidence in preparing, implementing and evaluating initiatives and policies. Commissioner Navracsics said: “Informed and responsible policy decisions need to be based on solid facts, but channelling scientific evidence into the democratic process remains a challenge. We therefore need to keep building a new dialogue between scientists and policy makers at all levels. I welcome the openness of all partners to continue the discussions started last year. And I am pleased to see that throughout the year this initiative has been rolled out at the regional level, with several Science meets Regions meetings having taken place recently.” The ‘Science meets Parliaments’ initiative was jointly launched by the JRC and the European Parliament’s Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA) in September 2015. Today’s event was preceded by yesterday’s first ‘Science meets Regions’ event, with representatives from European regions which spearheaded similar events with the JRC in 2016 to promote a better understanding between scientists and policy making as well as a culture of evidence-based policy making on a regional level.