December 2016

Science & Policy:

What’s on the EU's agenda?

2

EUROPEAN COMMISSION JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE

Strategy and Work Programme Coordination Interinstitutional, International Relations & Outreach

SCIENCE & POLICY: WHAT'S ON THE EU'S AGENDA?

1 December 2016

The DG JRC's monthly briefing to the scientific community, N° 53

Table of Contents

1. Activities of the European Institutions 3

1.1 European Commission 3

1.2 Council 3

1.3 European Parliament 5

1.4 Committee of the Regions (CoR) 9

1.5 European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) 9

2. Conferences & Meetings 10

2.1 DG JRC Conferences and Meetings 10

2.2 Further European Conferences and Meetings 11

2.3 International Conferences 13

3. DG JRC News 15

October Highlights 15

Correspondence: Strategy and Work Programme Coordination Interinstitutional, International Relations & Outreach– DG JRC European Commission, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium Telephone: (32-2) 299 11 11 Office: CDMA 05/155 JRC-STAKEHOLDERS@ec.europa.eu Prepared by Elisebha Fabienne Platzer

3

1. Activities of the European Institutions

1.1 European Commission

Date Event Subject

12-13 January Visit of the College of

Commissioners to Valletta

The College of Commissioners is travelling to Valletta for its traditional visit to the incoming Presidency of the Council of the

European Union

All meetings of the College of Commissioners

1.2 Council

Date Event Venue/Location

1-5 December Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council Brussels

6 December Economic and Financial Affairs Council Brussels

8-9 December Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council Brussels

8-9 December Justice and Home Affairs Council Brussels

12 December Foreign Affairs Council Brussels

12-13 December

Agriculture and Fisheries Council Brussels

13 December General Affairs Council Brussels

14 December Political and Security Committee Brussels

15-16 December

European Council Brussels

19 December Environment Council Brussels

4

16 January Foreign Affairs Council Brussels

23 January Agriculture and Fisheries Council Brussels

24 January Economic and Financial Affairs Council Brussels

All meetings of the Council

5

1.3 European Parliament

Plenary Sessions

Date Event Subjects Venue/Location

1 December EP Plenary

Among others: EU-Ghana Stepping Stone Economic Partnership Agreement; liability, compensation and financial security for offshore oil and gas operations; Commissioners' declarations of interests– Guidelines; address by Beji Caid Essebsi, President of the Republic of Tunisia

Brussels

12-15 December

EP Plenary

Among others: Situation of fundamental rights in the European Union in 2015; North-East Atlantic: deep-sea stocks and fishing in international waters; CAP tools to reduce price volatility in agricultural markets; a coherent EU policy for cultural and creative industries; rights of women in the Eastern Partnership States; Energy Union package; EU-Algeria Framework Agreement on the general principles for the participation of Algeria in Union programmes; Annual Report on human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter 2015; debates on foreign affairs issues in the presence of the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (tbd); Implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (Article 36 TEU); preparation of the European Council meeting of 15 and 16 December 2016 Council and Commission statements; Research Programme of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel; market access to port services and financial transparency of ports; Aviation Strategy for Europe; joint debate: accession of Ecuador to the EU-Colombia and Peru Trade Agreement;

Strasbourg

Committee Meetings

1 December Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

Among others: Hearing of Mr Vladimir Šucha, Director-General, Joint Research Centre (DG JRC) and of Mr Giovanni De Santi, Director, Joint Research Center (DG JRC).

Brussels

6

5 December Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

Among others: Exchange of views with representatives from the National Parliaments of Germany, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom on the parliamentary investigations into emissions measurement in the automotive sector; presentation of the study on ‘Car emissions – Differences in EU and US legislation’

Brussels

5 December Committee on Transport and Tourism

Among others: An Aviation Strategy for Europe; Logistics in the EU and multimodal transport in the new TEN-T corridors; amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 concerning the opening of the market for domestic passenger transport services by rail; repeal of Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69 of the Council on common rules for the normalisation of the accounts of railway undertakings; approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles and their trailers, and of systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles; exchange of views with Commissioner Violeta Bulc

Brussels

5 December Committee on Fisheries

Among others: Specific conditions to fishing for deep-sea stocks in the North-East Atlantic, provisions for fishing in international waters of the North-East Atlantic and repeal of Regulation (EC) No 2347/2002; sustainable management of external fishing fleets; characteristics for fishing vessels (recast); an integrated European Union policy for the Arctic; Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Government of the Cook Islands; Report on the ICCAT mission by the Committee on Fisheries to Vilamoura, Portugal, from 15 to 19 November 2016

Brussels

5 December Committee on Budgetary Control

Among others: ECA Special Report 27/2016 (Discharge 2015): Governance at the European Commission — best practice?

Brussels

5 December Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Among others: Exchange of views with Martti Hetemäki, Chair of the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB); European Semester for economic policy coordination: Annual Growth Survey 2017; Annual Report on EU Competition Policy

Brussels

7

5 December Committee on Culture and Education

Among others: Exchange of views with Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner responsible for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport; implementation report on Erasmus +; an integrated approach to Sport Policy: good governance, accessibility and integrity; presentation by the European Commission of the Annual work programmes (Erasmus+ and Creative Europe);

Brussels

5 December Committee on Foreign Affairs

Agenda not yet available Brussels

5 December Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

Among others: Conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada of the one part, and the European Union and its Member States, of the other part

Brussels

5 December Committee on International Trade

Agenda not yet available Brussels

5 December Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Agenda not yet available Brussels

5 December Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Among others: Cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws (text with EEA relevance); establishing a Union programme to support specific activities enhancing the involvement of consumers and other financial services end-users in Union policy making in the field of financial services for the period of 2017-2020

Brussels

5 December Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Among others: The Charta of Digital Fundamental Rights in the EU; Joint Way Forward (JWF) on migration issues between Afghanistan and the EU; exchange of views with Bernard Cazeneuve, French Minister of the Interior; combating terrorism and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA on combating terrorism; Annual Report 2015 on the Protection of the EU's Financial Interests - Fight against fraud;

Brussels

8

7 December

Committee of Inquiry to investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of Union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion

Among others: Fight against tax evasion and anti-money laundering: state of play of progress made at EU level;

8 December Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Agenda not yet available Brussels

8 December Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Agenda not yet available Brussels

8 December Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Agenda not yet available Brussels

8 December Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

Among others: The status of fish stocks and the socio-economic situation of the fishing sector in the Mediterranean; the need for an EU strategy to end and prevent the Gender Pension Gap; Amendment to Directive 2004/37/EC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work; cross-border exchange between the Union and third countries of accessible format copies of certain works and other subject-matter protected by copyright and related rights for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled

Brussels

12 December Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

Agenda not yet available Strasbourg

12 December Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Agenda not yet available Strasbourg

12 December Committee on Foreign Affairs

Among others: Exchange of views with the 2016 Sakharov Price Laureates

Strasbourg

All European Parliament Committee meetings

9

1.4 Committee of the Regions (CoR)

Date Event Venue/Location

1 December Joint CoR-EIB/JASPERS workshop on "Implementing the Urban Agenda for the EU: a smart city approach"

Brussels

1 December 11th Environment, Climate Change and Energy (ENVE) Commission meeting

Brussels

1 December E-Health: Let's Find a Common Language (Assembly of European Regions) Brussels

2 December Independent Ukraine: Europe Balance Poznań, Poland

6 December Integration of third country migrants: role of local and regional authorities Brussels

7 December 120th CoR plenary session Brussels

8 December Integration, cooperation and performance of health systems - Stakeholder consultation by Rapporteur Birgitta Sacrédeus (SE/EPP – NAT commission)

Brussels

14 December Working Group Turkey (Meeting No 19) Brussels

2 February 12th Natural Resources (NAT) Commission Meeting Brussels

22 February 8th ARLEM (Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly) Plenary Session

Brussels

Further events of the Committee of the Regions

1.5 European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

Date Event Venue/Location

6 December Labour Provisions in Trade Agreements: design, implementation and stakeholder involvement

Brussels

8 December COP22 debriefing public debate Brussels

10

9 December Evictions of Roma Brussels

13 December 12th meeting of the EU Domestic Advisory Group (DAG) Brussels

3 March European Migration Forum – 3rd meeting Brussels

30-31 March Your Europe, Your Say! 2017 Brussels

Further events of the European Economic and Social Committee

2. Conferences & Meetings

2.1 DG JRC Conferences and Meetings

Date Event Organiser Venue/Location

1 December

Science and Technology Studies (STS) Contro-Corrente Seminars: Harro van Lente

DG JRC Ispra, Italy

2 December

European Learning Initiatives for Nuclear Decommissioning and Environment Remediation (ELINDER)

DG JRC Bratislava, Slovakia

5 December

EU-China Joint Workshop on Water DG JRC Ispra, Italy

5 December

12th Annual Conference of the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA)

EPAA, EC, DG JRC Brussels

6 December

MYGEOSS final workshop: Open Data, Open Source, Open Minds

DG JRC, DG RTD Brussels

6-7 December

Kick-off event of the smart specialisation platform on agri-food

DG JRC, COST Florence, Italy

11

12-13 December

DanubeHack 2.0 DG JRC, EC, Slovak Presidency of the

Council

Bratislava, Slovakia

13 December

Launch of the Competence Centre on Text Mining and Analysis & Conference on Text Mining in Policy Making

DG JRC Brussels

8 February Citizen Science and Open Data: a model for Invasive Alien Species in Europe

DG JRC, COST Brussels

Further upcoming DG JRC events

Further upcoming events in the EU Newsroom Calendar

2.2 Further European Conferences and Meetings

30 November-

2 December

9th SET-Plan Conference 2016 and Central European Energy Conference (CEEC X)

EC, Slovak Presidency of the Council

Bratislava, Slovakia

1 December

State aid in the management of the ESI Funds EC Brussels

1 December

Launching the Digital skills and jobs coalition – Boosting Europe’s digital skills

EC Brussels

1-2 December

European cluster conference 2016: CLUSTERS 4.0: Shaping smart industries

EC Brussels

1-2 December

25 years of MEDIA : Investing in creativity, building the future

EC Brussels

2 December

H2020 Info Day: Customised computing and ICT innovation for manufacturing SMEs

EC Brussels

5 December

12th Annual Conference of the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA)

EPAA Brussels

12

5 December

Research and innovation for achieving the sustainable development goals (SGDs) in the European context: current state of play and ways forward

EC Brussels

5 December

Europe as a global actor EC Brussels

5-8 December

European nuclear safeguards training seminar EC Brussels

5-8 December

European Summit on Digital Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing

EC Brussels

5-9 December

The European Vocational Skills Week EC Brussels

6-7 December

The 2016 EU Agricultural Outlook Conference EC Brussels

6-7 December

Non-Animal Approaches - The Way Forward EC Brussels

7 December

Cultural heritage, disaster resilience and climate change: the contribution of EU research and innovation

EC Brussels

8-9 December

Digitising European industry working groups meeting

EC Brussels

8-9 December

Launch event of the European human biomonitoring initiative (#HBM4EU)

EC, Slovak Presidency of the Council

Brussels

9 December

The value of mutual learning in policy making (MLP)

EC Brussels

12 December

2016 Export Control Forum EC, Slovak Presidency of the

Council Brussels

12 December

Public procurement professionalisation workshop I – guidance, templates and training

EC Brussels

13

12-14 December

Modelling in Plant Health – how can models support risk assessment of plant pests and decision-making?

EC, European Plant Protection Organization (EPPO)

Parma, Italy

11 January Informal meeting of EU Political Directors EC, EEAS, Maltese Presidency of

the Council Floriana, Malta

16-17 January

Forum on leadership policy for equality and learning; Take it to the student

Maltese Presidency of the Council

St. Julians, Malta

17-18 January

Information and networking days on Horizon 2020 big data public-private partnership topics 2017

EC Brussels

19-20 January

Maltese Presidency Workshop On Climate Change EC, Maltese Presidency of the

Council St. Julians,

Malta

24 January Economic workshop: Fiscal policy and public investment for relaunching potential growth

EC Brussels

25-26 January

Seafood safety: new findings and innovation challenges

EC Brussels

3-4 May Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Research & Innovation

EC, Maltese Presidency of the Council

Valletta, Malta

2.3 International Conferences

Date Event Organiser Venue/Location

2-3 December

Global Conference "Improving Data on International Migration"

International Organization for Migration (IOM) Global,

Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), DG JRC Knowledge

Centre for Migration and Demography, Federal Foreign Office of Germany and the

USA

Berlin, Germany

5-9 December

International Conference on Nuclear Security: Commitments and Actions

IAEA Vienna, Austria

14

6-7 December

Joint international meeting on the Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) market. Scenarios analysis and emerging challenges for LEAs

INTERPOL, Research Centre on security and Crime (RiSSC)

Lyon, Frace

8-9 December

Science Forum South Africa Science & Technology

Department of the Republic of South Africa

Tshwane, South Africa

9-11 December

The 7th Kwang-Hua Forum on Innovations and Implementations in Earthquake Engineering Research

College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University

Shanghai, China

12-14 December

Beyond Technological Innovation and Diffusion. The Drivers of Economic Change and Economic Coordination: from Knowledge and Technology to Organizational Learning and Industrial Dynamics

University of California Berkeley

Berkeley, USA

12-16 December

American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting

AGU San Francisco,

USA

14 December

The League of the European Research Universities (LERU) Launch event: Interdisciplinarity & the 21st century research-intensive university

LERU Brussels

14-17 December

COP 13 to the Convention on Biological Diversity

COP Cancun, Mexico

7-13 January 2017

16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

WCEE and Chilean Association of Seismology and Earthquake

Engineering- ACHISINA Santiago, Chile

16-17 January

OECD Ministerial Meeting of Health and High Level Policy Forum: Putting People at the Centre. The Future of Health

OECD Paris, France

27-28 January

European Cancer Congress 2017 (ECCO2017) European Society of Radiology Amsterdam, The

Netherlands

16-20 February

AAAS 2017 Annual Conference American Association for the

Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Boston, US

22-24 February

2017 World Ocean Summit The Economist Bali, Indonesia

22-26 February

International Conference on Human and Organizational Aspects of Assuring Nuclear Safety – Exploring 30 Years of Safety Culture

IAEA Vienna, Austria

15

20-24 March Land and Poverty Conference 2017: Responsible Land Governance—Towards an Evidence Based Approach

The World Bank Washington D.C.,

USA

18-23 June STARMUS IV Festival Norwegian University of

Science and Technology, The Research Council of Norway

Trondheim Norway

3. DG JRC News

2015 DG JRC Annual Report

2015 Overview of the scientific process of the EU Agencies network for

scientific advice (EU-ANSA)

November DG JRC Newsletter November 2016

Open The EU is recruiting researchers - Call for expressions of interest

November Highlights

3-4 November 5th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region: Innovative

Flows- Water, Knowledge and Innovation in the Danube Region

Under the title “Innovative Flows- Water, Knowledge and Innovation in the Danube Region“, the Forum put a strong emphasis on the challenges and perspectives of water management and research and innovation. The key question to answer was how to best transform political commitment into operational policies and measures.

7 November Science meets regions

Together with the Committee of the Regions a conference was organised to examine the challenges of evidence informed policy-making at regional level. It brought together representative of EU regional authorities and scientists to exchange views on evidence-informed decision-making process at regional level.The outcomes of discussion fed into a high level panel debate that took place during the Science meets Parliaments 2016 on the next day, the 8th of November, at the European Parliament. The debate's title was: "Science for Better European Evidence-Informed Policy-Making: Importance of the International, National and Regional Dimension".

16

7-10 November Thirteenth Plenary Session of the Group on Earth Observations

The GEO-XIII Plenary and Exhibition took place in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation from 7 to 10 November 2016. JRC scientist Max Craglia attended the Plenary Session. On 8 November, he represented the European Commission at the 4th Programme Board meeting, and on 9 November he co-chaired the side event on Citizen GEOSS. The Citizen GEOSS event aimed at discussing the latest developments in citizen-based observation techniques and volunteered geographic information applications and their potential integration into GEOSS. It featured the winning applications of the MYGEOSS calls for innovative apps addressing citizens' needs as well as other relevant activities such as Citizens' Observatories and other citizen science activities.

7-18 November DG JRC at COP22

As the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, the JRC regularly provides scientific and technical advice for the development and implementation of EU policy in a range of thematic areas central to international climate negotiations. In this capacity the JRC also advises the EU's delegation to Marrakech, Morocco. In addition, the JRC advances the EU’s goals for global action in other ways too: it produces analyses and reports on key themes, and at events it showcases its work and brings the EU’s scientific and technical perspective in debates engaging other Parties’ negotiators and experts. DG JRC participation at COP22: JRC experts spoke at official UNFCCC special events, and at side-events held at the EU Pavilion. At these events the JRC showcased its work and contributed to a technical perspective of the debates engaging Parties' delegates and experts on thematic areas that are the focus of current and upcoming negotiations. For detailed information on DG JRC's contributions please follow the link.

8 November Science meets parliaments 2016

Following on from the success of Science meets parliaments in 2015, the JRC will organise the 2016 edition on 8 November 2016 in Brussels. The event brought together Members of the European Parliament (MEP) and scientists in a series of bilateral meetings, as well as the now established Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA) MEP-Scientist Pairing Scheme.

10 November EU Workshop on Migration Data

In the framework of activities of the Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography, the JRC is organised a one-day workshop on Migration Data on Thursday 10 November at JRC Ispra. The workshop brought together relevant Commission services and EU agencies that play a key role in collecting and analysing migration data, including FRONTEX, EASO, FRA and eu-LISA. The aim of the workshop was to share information, identify gaps and highlight the areas which can benefit the most from this joint effort.

14-17 November Course: Nuclear data processing and use in nuclear applications

The main objective of the course was to explain how to process nuclear data libraries and prepare them for use in nuclear applications. Introductory lectures on neutron induced nuclear data, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, deterministic and Monte Carlo methods in nuclear applications will be given. Nuclear data processing codes and tools such as NJOY, JANIS and SANDY were presented through practical exercises.The following topics were treated: Nuclear data libraries and databases, tools for formatting and processing of nuclear data, integral benchmarking of nuclear data, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of nuclear data, deterministic and Monte Carlo methods for neutron transport.

16 November Marine sustainability in an age of changing oceans and seas: JRC-EASAC joint report

The JRC and the European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC) held a promotion event of their published joint report on 'Marine sustainability in an age of changing oceans and seas'. A detailed summary of the report is also available. With the aim to promote the joint report of DG JRC and EASAC and thus further support policy-making, a series of events are organised in EU Member States and Associated countries. The approximately half-day events are hosted by EASAC-member and national Science Academies. The report aims at contributing to the governance challenge of integrating various aspects of marine policy (fisheries management, biodiversity conservation and marine environmental protection) as part of a coherent ecosystem approach. It considers how current scientific knowledge on marine ecosystems and the organisation of science can support an integrated

17

approach to management of the seas. The report looks at a number of key aspects for sustainable development in changing oceans and seas, and particularly highlights the key scientific challenges in addressing these issues. The report presents both recommendations from science for policy development, and recommendations on policy for science.

17-18 November A Year Without A Winter: Fictions and Policy

A Year Without A Winter: Fictions and Policy Inspirational Workshop Series is organised in collaboration with Arizona State University. The cultural spaces into which policy makers intervene are saturated with images and narratives. From works of art and literature, to trends in food and fashion, aesthetic forms, practices and preferences shape the way people comprehend the world. Political theory has long recognized the aesthetic domain as a powerful political force—at once a potential ally and a dangerous antagonist. Likewise, artists must negotiate the political implications of their work, whether by seeking to engage more deeply or to distance artistic values from explicit political aims. In this workshop we engage the arts not merely as a source of entertainment or propaganda, but as a mode of world-making on par with science and politics. The workshop interrogates narratives of climate and climate change that are emerging in the context of the arts and transdisciplinary scholarship and considers how creative interventions can unlock new ways of thinking about our relationship to the environment and our political agency within it.

22 November European Innovation Policies for the Digital Shift

DG JRC and DG CONNECT held a conference on European Innovation Policies for the Digital Shift in Brussels on 22 November. The objective of the conference was to discuss innovation policies for the Digital Single Market focusing on: digital innovation and entrepreneurship, the role of standards and intellectual property rights for digital innovation, financing of innovation in the digital age. This event was the Final Conference of the three-year European Innovation Policies for the Digital Shift (EURIPIDIS) research project, which aims to improve understanding of innovation in the ICT sector and of ICT-enabled innovation in the rest of the economy. The conference was attended by European Commission staff, policy analysts, representatives from the ICT industry, and academia working on issues related to the Digital Economy.

22 November TTO Circle: Evaluation of intangibles and novel technologies: art or science?

On 22 November, the 3rd edition of the annual best practices workshops of the European TTO Circle was held in Brussels. The focus of this workshop was the evaluation of intangibles and novel technologies. The lack of practical evaluation methods of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is the main challenge that the stakeholders are facing in the commercialization of IPRs. This lack often results in an investors' reticence to commit funds for their exploitation. One of the key objectives was, therefore, to discuss different methods to evaluate in the best possible way Intellectual Property, with an emphasis on the several practices undertaken in the private sector. This event was an opportunity for TTO Circle's members and external actors to share their experience and their modus operandi for Intellectual Property evaluation. The workshop was divided in two sessions: in the first, actors working in private sector gave an overview of their approach to the IP valuation process. The second session was focused on the case studies of IP evaluation presented by the members of the TTO Circle

24-25 November 22nd MARS Conference

The 2016 MARS Conference provided a platform to present Member State experiences and other observations regarding the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS), including developments in shared management. During the Conference, challenges and opportunities for image use, aspects of performance and the future outlook of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) were also discussed. The Conference took place in Lisbon.

24-25 November ECIBC Plenary 2016: When Science and Policy collaborate for Health

This year Plenary’s theme was the European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer (ECIBC): when Science and Policy collaborate for Health. Day 1 focused on Science for Policy Development and day 2 on Policy for Science Implementation.

28-30 November International conference on social statistics

The speakers at the international conference 'Towards more agile social statistics', organised by Eurostat, included

18

high-profile policy makers, academics, and statistical experts from Europe and around the world. Sessions addressed topics such as increasing the relevance of statistics on asylum and migration, statistics in intra-EU mobility, the future of population statistics, the use of new data sources in social statistics, combining and estimating data, new ways of monitoring labour mobility and transitions, and more flexible statistical outputs. As well considered were recent developments in the methods and organisation of social statistics. The conference addressed broader questions about the role of social statistics to guide and assess policy within a rapidly changing and diversifying society. The overall aim was to examine how social statistics can become more agile– responding rapidly and flexibly to meet new user needs through the adoption of innovative methods.

29-30 November Space Weather & Critical Infrastructures Summit

Since five years have passed from the initial "Space Weather & Critical Infrastructures" event, the Summit on 29-30 November 2016, in Ispra, aimed to take stock of space-weather risk reduction efforts in the EU over the past years and to identify remaining gaps that still need to be addressed. Co-organized by the leading Joint Research Centre scientists together with other international partners and academia this event aimed to increase awareness of space-weather impacts among the stakeholders, and encouraged continued efforts towards risk assessment, preparedness and targeted response. The focus of this event was primarily the EU, however the international participation, and in particular from the US, is also sought in light of the recent publication of the US National Space Weather Strategy. Participants were expected to represent diverse stakeholder groups, such as government (decision makers, crisis managers), industry, and the scientific and engineering communities.

All DG JRC news