ALLEA Leads New SAPEA Project on Strategic Crisis Management in the EU

ALLEA is taking the lead on a new SAPEA project on the topic “Strategic Crisis Management in the EU”, to address a question raised by European Commissioners to the Scientific Advice Mechanism: Based on a broad and multidisciplinary understanding, how can the EU improve its strategic crisis management?

The project will deliver an Evidence Review Report, informing policy advice to be given by the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the Commission in response to this question.

In the Scoping Paper that defines the project, it is observed that, after the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU and European societies need to prepare themselves better for future natural or human-made shocks: “Improving EU crisis management has thus become an essential issue for protecting and enhancing the present and future wellbeing of EU citizens”, according to the Scoping Paper.

“Supporting that policy ambition with evidence-based advice implies an urgent need to investigate – based on the best available cross-disciplinary expertise – improvements to the overarching EU crisis management framework. Such a framework must be able effectively to anticipate various major threats, risks and crises, help to prevent them by addressing their root causes which make the EU and citizens vulnerable to emergencies, respond to them effectively when they do occur, as well as to absorb and recover from major shocks, based on robust, future-proof policies. The framework must be able to integrate Commission-internal and external crisis management actions effectively.”

The Scientific Opinion is expected to be delivered by the end of second quarter of 2022.

How SAPEA Works

ALLEA is one of the five networks that compose SAPEA and will work together with its Member Academies and other European Academy networks to lead the project.

To ensure the delivery of a report of the highest standard in a transparent way, SAPEA’s work is guided by a set of principles and procedures which can be found in its Quality Assurance Guidelines.

SAPEA is part of the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism. Together with the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, it provides independent scientific advice to European Commissioners to support their decision-making.

Jointly with its networks, it brings together outstanding expertise from natural, applied, and social sciences and humanities, from over a hundred academies, young academies and learned societies in more than 40 countries across Europe.