Calls for stakeholders

EFSA may launch calls for expression of interest to build thematic communities of stakeholders with an interest in a given topic. Unless otherwise stated, these calls are open to both registered and non-registered stakeholders.

Ongoing calls

Call for expressions of interest targeting SME–Novel Food potential applicants interested in receiving EFSA’s advice

EFSA has launched a call for expressions of interest to identify small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working in the area of novel foods that are interested in receiving EFSA’s advice on requirements for an application to obtain the authorisation to put their novel food in the European Union market. 

This call aims to raise awareness and facilitate access for SMEs to the general pre submission advice (GPSA) service. This service can be requested at any moment before the submission of an application, however this call focuses on the two specific stages that can be of special interest for SMEs with no or limited experience in submitting a novel food application, namely: 

• on the very early stage of the development of the novel food, even before starting the studies that will be included in the application
• on the latest stages of the preparation of the application, when most of the information that will be included in the application is already available to the SME.

The call will remain opened until 31 October 2024. 

SMEs can submit their expressions of interest via a dedicated form: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/EOI-NF-SMEs-24

More details available in the Call Text. 

If you have any questions on this call, contact us via the Ask a Question service. Don’t forget to include “Novel Food – call for expressions of interest” in the subject of the request.

An online info session to present the call and reply the most frequently asked questions will be published on 16 July 2024 and the recording will be available at this webpage.

The information submitted to answer the call, to request the advice and in the meetings will be treated as confidential. The only information that EFSA will make publicly available is a summary of the advice, only if and when the future application for the authorisation to put the novel food in the EU market that is the subject of the advice is declared valid, and together with the non-confidential version of the application dossier.

Past/closed calls

Call for expression of interest for the Stakeholder Discussion Group on Environmental Risk Assessment (Stakeholder DG on ERA)

About the call

The Stakeholder DG on ERA is a dynamic platform for engagement and collaboration between EFSA and experts in the field contributing to shaping the future of plant protection products (PPPs) in the European Union.
Please find all details about the scope, composition, roles and more in the Framework for Interaction document.

The call received fifteen nominations from ten organisations. The discussion group composition and the minutes of the Selection Board meeting are available here: Stakeholder DG on ERA composition & minutes (last update June 2024).

Innovative food/feed

About the project

Innovation is one of the key drivers in accelerating the transition to sustainable, healthy, and inclusive food systems from primary production to consumption and can contribute to developing solutions and overcoming barriers. Innovation in the food and feed production sector has been substantial over the last two decades, both in terms of the production technologies it employs as well as the products it brings forward. Changes in production technologies and global supply chains, along with the growing need to secure food and feed, to ensure the sustainable use of resources and to address societal concerns provide key drivers for future developments. Innovative production technologies can drive a new generation of new foods and feeds sources, necessitating multifaceted pre-market evaluation to protect the human and animal health and interests.

To allow EFSA to adapt its risk assessment approaches to these new realities while anticipating potential risks to food and feed safety, the Authority is implementing a 2,5-year project on Ensuring preparedness for the assessment of safety of new food/feed sources and production technologies.  

Comprehensive mapping of relevant stakeholders for future engagement

One of the main components of the project aims at realizing a continuous and systematic engagement with a broad group of relevant stakeholders.  

To get a comprehensive picture of players involved, EFSA is now carrying out a detailed stakeholder mapping in the relevant sectors at EU and international level, such as industry, NGOs, consumer organisations, the scientific community, innovators, regulators, risk assessors and risk communicators.

Once completed, the mapping will be at the basis of engagement opportunities that will contribute to building a network to detect innovative food/feed sources and production technologies and try to identify potential emerging issues.

Who we are looking for and how you can apply

For this network, EFSA aims to attract a wide variety of stakeholders, including:

• From the Europe Union and beyond
• From across the food and feed value chain/system
• Consumer organisations, as well as industry, NGOs, the scientific community, innovators, regulators, risk assessors and risk communicators, innovation actors, etc.
• Active in or with expertise in the area of food and feed innovation, including fields such as:
  • Nanotechnology
  • Biotechnology
  • Innovative processing technologies
  • 3D printing
  • Alternative protein sources
  • Alternative food sources of aquaculture origin
  • Alternative feed sources for aquaculture
  • Alternative carbohydrates sources
  • Novel plants-based food/feed
  • Fungi and microorganisms
  • Nano-enabled nutrients
  • Active / intelligent packaging

If you are interested in being included in our stakeholder mapping, register using the link here. This will ensure you will be considered for any future participatory activities as part of this EFSA project.

Any organisation or actors whose interests and expertise will be considered relevant for the scope of the project will be included in the mapping.

If you are interested, please register at your earliest convenience. This call will remain open for the entire duration of the project. EFSA reserves the right to subsequently contact individual stakeholders as needed for specific participatory activities as deemed appropriate.

Food and feed safety vulnerabilities in a circular economy

About the project

This two-year project, running in 2021-2022, aims to identify emerging risks to food and feed safety and the environment in the transition to a circular economy in a holistic and integrated fashion.

This will ensure that food and feed safety as well as environmental health considerations are incorporated at an early stage of research or policy initiatives linked to recycling and the circular economy.

The need for a comprehensive network of partners and stakeholders

The involvement of stakeholders throughout the project iskey to identify challenges for future risk assessments and explore possible synergies, opportunities, conflicts and trade-offs between environmental and food safety policies, objectives and actions.

EFSA will engage this network through various activities (workshops, events, consultations, etc.) inter alia to:

• Steer the evolution of the project.
• Support the identification of challenges for food and feed safety risk assessment and the prioritisation of knowledge gaps, policy needs, country-specific issues, vulnerabilities.
• Identify best practices on how to integrate food safety and environmental initiatives.
• Design principles and strategies to ensure consistency and integration between overarching policy agendas and sectoral policies for environment and food/feed safety.
• Design and implement participatory foresight activities for future circular economy practices.
• Make recommendations (data, method, technology, policy, collaboration, outreach needs).

Who we are looking for and how you can apply

For this network, EFSA aimed to attract a wide variety of organisations, including:

• From Europe and beyond.
• From across the food value chain/system.
• Farmers, businesses, NGOs, consumers, academia and research, public institutions, etc.
• Those with expertise in human/animal/plant health and/or the environment and climate.

The call remained open until end of April 2022. EFSA reserves the right to subsequently contact individual stakeholders as needed for specific participatory activities as deemed appropriate.

Upcoming and past engagement activities on circular economy

1 - Extensive literature search and first stakeholder workshop (29 October 2021)

In August 2020, EFSA published a call for procurement where the Harper Adams University was selected to carry out an extensive literature search and monitor on-going research projects with the aim to map existing circular economy practices, gather information and evaluate the evidence for vulnerabilities of circular economy for food/feed safety, plant and animal and human health.

The initial identification and categorization of CE practices relevant for the food and feed chain and the resulting emerging risks led to two conclusions:

• The amount and breadth of circular economy practices imposed the need for prioritizing the domain on which EFSA should focus on for the next steps of the project,
• Additional sources of information were needed, as scientific literature only takes stock of existing practices but does not shed light on future drivers.

Based on the above, EFSA decided to narrow the original scope of the project and focus on the identification and characterization of risks from novel feed sources and technologies in the framework of circular economy.

The preliminary findings of the extensive literature search were presented to stakeholders in a dedicated workshop on 29 October 2021, which marked the first step in the foresight participatory process.

2 - Foresight and emerging risk identification workshop (9-10 June 2022)

On 9 and 10 June 2022, EFSA will hold a foresight workshop to focus on the identification of key drivers and potential emerging risks related to circular economy practices within the domain of novel sources of feed, and notably: food waste, former food products and food processing by-products.

The goal of the event is to collect input on specific sources of novel feed within the three source categories prioritised by EFSA and drivers leading to their use in the future, and to identify potential risks associated to these sources. In this way, EFSA will expand the horizon and build a longer-term perspective.

The event will bring together policymakers, stakeholders and practitioners, scientists and researchers to tackle the issue using a multidisciplinary approach.

The event announcement and registration are now available on our EFSA website.