New President
After 3 years, Prof. Paul Walter retired from his position as ILSI Europe President and handed over to Dr. Ib Knudsen.
Chief adviser in Food Safety and Toxicology, Dr. Knudsen retired from the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research in June 2006 and is presently working as scientific adviser for Danish Government Institutes and different international organisations. He used to be a Member of Scientific Steering Committee of the European Commission from 1997-2003, Member of the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food 1988-2000, Chairman for this Committee 1997-2000. He was also Member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Food Safety, Geneva, Switzerland 1998-2006.
Prof. Gérard Pascal from the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA), France was elected vice-president.
ILSI Europe has the following structure:
The General Assembly is the ultimate decision making body on which all member companies are represented. The General Assembly elects the Board
of Directors.
Moderated by the chairman, the Board of Directors is the managing body of the Institute. To ensure a balanced input, it is composed of an equal number of member company representatives and of scientists from academic institutions. It approves i) the scientific programmes, ii) the appointment of Scientific Advisory Committee members iii) the appointment of Expert Group members and iv) the proposals of new task forces following advice of the Scientific Advisory Committee.
List of current members of the Board of Directors
The Scientific Advisory Committee is composed of a maximum of twenty experts with at least 50% coming from the non-industry sector. It is chaired by the President of ILSI Europe. The members of the SAC are elected by the Board of Directors according to their relevant expertise, their prestige and availability for active contribution.
The aims of the Scientific Advisory Committee are to:
• review the scientific programme of ILSI Europe, including the new activities with respect to their scientific validity, coherence within ILSI Europe’s
programme, feasibility, urgency of the issues
• monitor the composition of expert groups and scientific advisors to task forces in order to ensure scientific integrity
• provide scientific guidance to the task forces
• propose and review proposals for new activities.
List of current members of the Scientific Advisory Committee
Composed of members from academia and industry with experience in publishing, writing and editing, the Publication Committee co-ordinates the peer-review process and ensures the quality of ILSI Europe publications in the Concise Monographs Series and in the Reports Series.
Task Forces are the working bodies that initiate, undertake, develop and manage all projects. Task forces address their topics through activities such
as expert groups, projects funded by the European Commission, workshops, conferences, literature reviews and all resulting publications.
Expert groups comprise at least 50% non-industry scientists to ensure a balanced input of ideas; they write most of ILSI Europe’s publications. Anybody can apply for an expert position.