The task of the Scientific Committee is to assist the Management Board and the Director of the EMCDDA by delivering an opinion on any scientific matter concerning the Centre's activity which the Management Board or the Director may submit to it. In addition, the risk assessment of new psychoactive substances is carried out by the Scientific Committee, in accordance with Article 5c of Regulation (EC) No 1920/2006 (as amended by regulation (EU) 2017/2101).
The EMCDDA Scientific Committee is set up by Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 1920/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (as amended by regulation (EU) 2017/2101).
The task of the Scientific Committee is to assist the Management Board and the Director of the EMCDDA by delivering an opinion on any scientific matter concerning the Centre's activity which the Management Board or the Director may submit to it. In addition, the risk assessment of new psychoactive substances is carried out by the Scientific Committee, in accordance with Article 5c of Regulation (EC) No 1920/2006 (as amended by regulation (EU) 2017/2101).
The Committee consists of fifteen well-known scientists appointed by the Management Board in view of their scientific excellence and their independence, following a publication of a call for expressions of interest in the Official Journal of the European Union. The selection procedure ensures that the specialist fields of the members of the Scientific Committee cover the most relevant scientific fields linked to the problems of drug and drug addiction.The members of the Scientific Committee are appointed in a personal capacity and give their opinions completely independently of the Member States and the Community Institutions and serve for a three-year period (renewable).
The Scientific Committee is requested by the EMCDDA founding regulation to give a formal opinion on the EMCDDA programming documents on the basis of a draft submitted by the Centre's Director before it is presented to the Management Board. The Scientific Committee reviews many of the EMCDDA publications with regard to their scientific quality, plays an important role in the risk assessment of new psychoactive substances and supports the different working areas of the EMCDDA. Since its constitution, the Scientific Committee has established itself as an important pillar of the EMCDDA’s institutional life, ensuring the scientific legitimacy of the Centre and providing for continuous improvement of the main outputs.
Minutes from recent Scientific Committee meetings and other reference documents are available under Documents.
| Scientific field | Member | Affiliation | Nationality | Specific expertise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic biological, neurobiological and behavioural research | Dr. Fernando Rodríguez de Fonseca | Member |
Fundación IMABIS, Málaga, Spain |
Spanish | Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Neurobiology of drug addiction, Basic research |
| Basic biological, neurobiological and behavioural research | Dr. Marta Torrens Mèlich | Member |
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and Neuropsychiatry and Addictions Institute, Consorci Parc de Salut Mar, Barcelona, Spain |
Spanish | Psychiatry |
| Demand reduction | Prof. Dr. Gabriele Fischer | Member |
Center of Public Health, Department of Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Medical University Vienna, Austria |
Austrian | Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Addiction research, Teaching, Policy and treatment, Public health, Gender research in psychiatry, Human rights |
| Demand reduction | Dr. Laura Amato | Member |
Department of Epidemiology, Regional Referral centre for Epidemiology of Drug Addiction and evaluation of health care interventions, Lazio, Italy |
Italian | Epidemiology, Evaluation of health care interventions |
| Drug policy | Dr. Anne Line Bretteville-Jensen | Chair |
Department of substance use, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway |
Norwegian | Health economics, Economics of addiction, Drug policy, Epidemiology |
| Drug policy | Prof. Dr. Henri Bergeron | Member |
Centre de Sociologie des Organisations, Sciences Po Paris, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris, France |
French | Sociology, Political science and policy evaluation |
| Drug policy | Dr. Marie Jauffret-Roustide | Member |
Inserm (French Institute of Health and Medical Research), Paris, France |
French | Sociology, Drug policy, Public health, Ethnicity, Gender issues, Harm reduction, Migration |
| Drug policy | Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Krajewski | Member |
Jagiellonian University, Department of Criminology, Krakow, Poland |
Polish | Criminal justice, Legislation, Penal policies, Crime prevention, Criminological theory and violent crime |
| Population-based research and epidemiology | Prof. Dr. Catherine Comiskey | Vice-Chair |
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland |
Irish | Epidemiology, Mathematics, Epidemic modelling, Modelling of treatment outcomes, Incidence and prevalence, Translation of research into policy and practice, Healthcare statistics |
| Population-based research and epidemiology | Prof. Dr. Ilkka Ojanperä | Member |
Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki and Forensic Toxicology Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland |
Finnish | Pharmacology & Toxicology |
| Population-based research and epidemiology | Prof. Dr. Margarida Gaspar de Matos | Member |
Faculdade de Motricidade Humana and Instituto de Saúde Ambiental/Faculdade de Medicina, University of Lisbon, Portugal |
Portuguese | Epidemiology, Incidence and prevalence |
| Population-based research and epidemiology | Prof. Dr. Matthew Hickman | Member |
Head of Population Health Sciences, Deputy Head Bristol Medical School, Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology, NIHR Senior Investigator, Director NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Behavioural Science and Evaluation. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol, UK |
British | Public health and addiction epidemiology, Prevention of health consequences of drug use, HIV, HCV, Drug related mortality, Prevalence estimation methods, Cannabis and health harms, HBV, Evaluation of health care interventions |
| Population-based research and epidemiology | Prof. Dr. Fabrizio Faggiano | Member |
Department of Translational Medicine of Università del Piemonte Orientale and Epidemiologic Observatory of the Local Health Unit of Vercelli, Italy |
Italian | Evaluation of effectiveness of prevention interventions, Effective strategies for primary prevention, Dissemination of evidence-based prevention strategies, Healthy ageing |
| Supply, supply reduction and crime | Dr. Kim Moeller | Member |
Faculty of Health and Society, Department of criminology, Malmö University, Sweden |
Danish | Criminology, Drug trafficking |
| Supply, supply reduction and crime | Dr. Marieke Liem | Member |
Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University, The Netherlands |
Dutch | Criminology, Clinical psychology |
