Annual report on Article 36 activities - Follow-up to the 2009 evaluation report of EFSA’s grant and science procurement schemes

The EFSA grant and procurement schemes are important tools for implementing the “Strategy on Co-operation and Networking” adopted by the Management Board in December 2006. With a view to the increasing workload as well as to address the complexity of the work while ensuring its high quality, the main objective of these schemes remains that competent organisations in Member States support EFSA in its scientific tasks.

In 2009, EFSA carried out a survey of EFSA staff and partner organisations having participated to grant and science procurement projects in the period 2007-2009. A synthesis report was published on the EFSA website in June 2010 which concluded with a set of recommendations towards improving the grant and procurement schemes.

This report reviews the progress made with regards to the above-mentioned recommendations. The assessment indicates that a number of actions have already been taken to address the recommendations from the evaluation report (e.g. introducing medium-term planning and developing two new IT tools), while others (e.g. automating the application procedure for grants, increasing EFSA financing and the maximum overheads rate) are currently under exploration. New experience gained in the implementation of the grant and procurement schemes and additional feedback received by the Member States and EFSA staff have provided valuable insights towards their further improvement.

Based on the above, the report provides suggestions for concrete follow-up actions towards further improving the implementation of the grant and procurement schemes.