Call for Applications for the Scientific Board

The Scientific Board (SB) of ANSES guarantees the high standards of the scientific expert appraisal process and oversees the evaluation of the Agency's research activities. The Board gathers prominent scientists, of recognised excellence and with competences spread across disciplines within ANSES' remit. The Board provides ANSES' management with recommendations on the strategic development of medium- and long-term goals, and may propose to address issues it deems relevant for ANSES. Among others, the Scientific Board addresses topics on renewed frameworks for risk assessment practices and scientific cross-cutting issues in order to anticipate the needs for data, knowledge and advanced methodologies to meet the growing challenges of One health and Global safety within the Planet's boundaries.   

The Board is independent of ANSES's operational bodies. It is composed of senior scientists with diverse scientific expertise covering various areas of intervention and with prior experience in scientific bodies and/or risk assessment and public health institutions. Members are appointed in their personal capacity (intuitu personae) by ministerial order for a period of three years and must submit and sign a public declaration of interests.

Through this new call, ANSES wishes to broaden the viewpoint of its Scientific Board by including more European and international scientists. Twenty-four (24) scientists with expertise in the Agency's sphere of competence will be selected, with a target of two-thirds from European or international backgrounds; the working language will therefore be switched to English.

Missions of ANSES

Since 2010, ANSES has been providing the scientific benchmarks needed to protect people from health risks related to food, the environment and the workplace, and from risks affecting the health of animals and plants. As a scientific expertise agency, ANSES conducts research and reference activities within its own laboratories, and monitors and assesses these health risks. It helps advance scientific knowledge to support public decision-makers, including during health crises. The broad scope of ANSES' activities gives it a cross-cutting view of health issues faced by human beings, animals and plants and ecosystems.

The Agency has established multiple partnerships with key scientific assessment and research players in France, and in the scientific community across the world. In that respect, the Scientific Board is also invited to suggest and promote contacts and cooperation of interest between ANSES and other institutions in France and abroad.

To learn more about the missions of ANSES.

Missions of the Scientific Board

The Scientific Board ensures the quality of the Agency's scientific work in all its areas of activity. It may provide ANSES with recommendations on any scientific and technical issue falling within the Agency's field of competence.

The Scientific Board is responsible, among others, for:

• Providing guidance on the research and expertise orientations of ANSES as well as on the scientific partnership and programming policy of the Agency, both on long term views and on the yearly implementation programme;
• Assisting the Agency's management in drawing up the procedure for calls for projects funded by ANSES' Research Programme for Environmental and Occupational Health (PNREST);
• Validating and supervising the evaluation process of the Agency's research activity, and issuing recommendations to the management on the basis of the results obtained;
• Giving an opinion on the key conditions for organising collective expertise at ANSES (e.g. mandate and composition of the specialised expert committees, fundamental principles of expertise...).

Composition of the Scientific Board

The Scientific Board has twenty-nine members:

• 24 scientific personalities competent in the Agency's fields;
• 2 ex-officio members: the Chairman of the Scientific Council of the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM) and the Chairman of the Scientific Board of the national public health agency, Santé publique France;
• 3 members in an advisory capacity appointed from among the Agency's scientific staff by their peers.

The Chair of the Scientific Board is appointed from among the 24 scientific personalities by ministerial order, after consultation within the Scientific Board. Two vice-chairs are elected.

Our expectations for candidates

ANSES seeks to attract scientists whose skills and experience enable the Scientific Board to perform a collective and comprehensive analysis of the Agency's scientific policy and its yearly implementation among the different fields of mission.

Applicants must demonstrate recognised scientific skills and a dedication to work in multi-disciplinary and "One Health" approach in the many scientific fields and issues covered by ANSES, including: food safety, nutrition, animal health and welfare, plant health and protection, occupational health, environmental health.

Applicants must have scientific competences in one or more of the following areas: human medicine, public health, occupational health, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, biology, virology, bacteriology, parasitology, agronomy, plant pathology, expology of physical or chemical hazards, toxicology, ecotoxicology, risk assessment methodology, epidemiology, epidemiosurveillance, modelling, sociology, economics, socio-economic analysis, science and technology studies.

Academic or professional experiences in the following areas are sought after, particularly in the thematic fields covered by ANSES:

• collective expertise and risk assessment activities,
• scientific strategy and foresight,
• evaluation of research teams or programmes,
• surveillance, vigilance or alert systems,
• social studies of risk, expertise, and/or scientific controversies,
• citizen science, participatory research,
• analytical reference activities in relation to pathogens or contaminants, 
• research activities and their coordination, with public policy outcomes.

Operations and workload

The Scientific Board meets in plenary sessions four times a year physically at ANSES headquarters in Maisons-Alfort, near Paris. Additional ad hoc meetings via web conferences may be organised when necessary.

The agendas are prepared jointly by the Chair of the Scientific Board, the two Vice-chairs and at least four other co-opted members of the Scientific Board, with the help of the Managing Director General of the "Science for Expertise Division".

The minutes of the Scientific Board's meetings and the activity report are prepared by the Scientific Board's secretariat.

The Scientific Board sets up two permanent commissions (each chaired by one of the two Vice-chairs) to carry out specific activities: the Scientific commission for laboratories and the Scientific commission for environmental and occupational health.

The workload of each member is estimated at 6 days a year (with additional workload for members of dedicated commissions or working groups and for the Chair and Vice-chairs).

The Chair of the Scientific Board may attend the meetings of the ANSES Board of administrators (four meetings a year) in an advisory capacity, subject to the fact that reporting to the Board of administrators shall be made in French.

Working language

The Scientific Board's working language will be adapted to the Scientific Board's composition (English, or French and English).

Payment and expenses

Travel and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed according to the conditions provided for State civilian personnel in France.

Compensation for loss of earnings for independent professions and compensation for time spent at meetings and for work carried out shall be paid according to the grid established by ANSES's Management Board.

Application procedure

The application (in French or English) must include:

• An application form to be downloaded here and completed.
• A curriculum vitae.
• A list of work/publications connected with the missions/activities in the scope of ANSES.
• A public declaration of interests (PDI) to be completed on the "DPI SANTE" government gateway

The application form, CV and list of publications must be submitted before 20/02/2023 to the following address: candidatures.CS@anses.fr

Non-French-speaking applicants will be contacted by the Agency to help them complete their PDI.

Application selection procedure and timeline

Only complete applications will be examined.

Applicants will be selected by an ANSES selection committee after assessment of the information provided in the application form, the applicant's suitability in line with the skills sought, and the declaration of interests. The selection committee will ensure that the essential skills required in order for the Scientific Board to fully exercise its missions are brought to the Board, and that parity and diversity are considered during the applicant selection process.

Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application's examination by an e-mail from the Scientific Board's secretariat once the Scientific Board's composition has been approved by ANSES's supervisory ministries (estimated timeframe: April 2023).