COMRISK is an international collaboration project focused on improving communication between risk assessment and decision makers. The project will be carried out through the Partnering Grants initiative of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The aim of the project is to improve the communication of food risk assessment results so that they are presented in a format allowing their use in decision making more efficiently than the current system. In the development of better ways to communicate the results, the needs and expectations of decision makers will also be surveyed.
In addition, the project will assess ways to present risks and their uncertainties so that decision makers can use the results to weigh the risks and related costs without the risk assessors overstepping their mandate by telling which of the risk management options would be the right one.
The project is a pilot project in which the practices of different countries will be examined through surveys and the collection of information on good practices and challenges. The applicability of different tools for risk communication between risk assessment and risk management will be assessed. The results will be available for use in all EU Member States through EFSA.
The project will be carried out in collaboration between the Risk Assessment Research Unit of the Finnish Food Authority, the National Veterinary Institute of Sweden (Statens veterinärmedicinska anstalt, SVA), the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung, BfR) and Wageningen University in the Netherlands (Wageningen University & Research, WU).
Schedule
2018 - 2020
Funding
EFSA Partnering Grant
Project Group
Pirkko Tuominen (Finnish Food Authority)
Johanna Suomi (Finnish Food Authority)
Antti Mikkelä (Finnish Food Authority)
Suvi Joutsen (Finnish Food Authority)
Kirsi-Maarit Siekkinen (Finnish Food Authority)
Auli Vaarala (Finnish Food Authority)
Gunnar Andersson, Marcus Urdl, Erik Nordkvist, Josefine Elving (SVA, Sweden)
Monika Lahrssen-Wiederholt, Anneluise Mader, Janine Kowalczyk (BfR, Germany)
Ine van der Fels-Klerx, Alfons Oude Lansink, Monique Mourits (WU, the Netherlands)
Project publications
Andersson MG, Elving J, Nordkvist E, Urdl M, Engblom L, Mader A, Kowalczyk J, Lahrssen-Wiederholt M, Altmeyer S, Tuominen P, Joutsen S, Suomi J, Mikkelä A, Hinkka N, Siekkinen K-M, van der Fels-Klerx I, van den Borne B, Ali B. 2020 Communication inside Risk Assessment and Risk Management (COMRISK): Final report EFSA supporting publication 2020: EN-1891. 48 pp. https://doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2020.EN-1891
More information
Pirkko Tuominen, pirkko.tuominen@foodauthority.fi