Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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EMCDDA´s Scientific Committee

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Role of the Scientific Committee

• SC advises MB and director

• May deliver an opinion on any scientific aspect of the EMCDDA activities

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Structural tasks

• Formal opinion on three year and annual work programmes

• Reviewing Annual report package to check its scientific quality

• Risk assessment of new psychoactive substances

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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“Voluntary” tasks

• Participation in (thematic) expert meetings, working groups

• Bilateral advice in his/her field of expertise

• Old SC - In some countries SC members advised National Focus Points for example on national reports.

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Personal note:

we did all that but, not all members were

very active

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Meetings of the Scientific Committee

“Obligatory”:• Twice a year regular SC meetings• Ad hoc risk assessment meetingsIn general a high attendance rate

“Voluntary”:• Expert meetings/working groupsJust some SC members attended more than one

meeting

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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The role of the Chair and Vice chair

• Also MB meetings, selection-committees senior staff, ad hoc committees (for instance steering group EMCDDA evaluation,Horizontal Drug Group

(Chair: Last two years 10 visits to Lisbon and 6 to Brussels)

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Recent external evaluation:

• SC is underused by the EMCDDA

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Possible reasons (personal view):• Not all SC members were very active/gave

the impression that they want to be used• MB asked for the “formal opinions”, was

not active in searching for more• EMCDDA staff are humans too: not all

gave the impression that they want to have feedback. For some feedback may be seen as inconvenient

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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New composition of the ScC, new start Old – New ScC

• Old situation: 27 members

(1 from each member state)

• New situation: 15 members

independent experts

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Advantages:

• Members are independent

• EMCDDA appoints the members and can decide on required expertise

• EMCDDA may even discharge members if they don’t attend (enough) meetings

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Role SC in the past (and future?):

• Role of “critical friend”

• Understanding the evolution of EMCDDA – sense of reality –

• don’t always judge EMCDDA activities by comparing them with a golden standard but work towards a situation that it is actually possible to do so in the future

Henk Garretsen, 14 February 2008, Palmela

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Informal interactions

Old SC:

• Sometimes dinner all together (if so on initiative of EMCDDA)

• Some interaction in subgroups

New SC?