Programme affiliate profiles
Ermolaos Ververis
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Ermolaos Ververis is a Chemist specialized in Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Food, obtaining his BSc and 1st MSc at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Through a joint Erasmus Mundus MSc degree on Animal-derived Foods, as well as participation in various research projects, he has obtained experience in the food research & development and food safety sectors, within Europe and overseas (The Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Italy). Since 2016, he has joined the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), working on the risk assessment of novel foods in the Nutrition and Food Innovation Unit. Under his current role as a scientific officer, he focuses on the safety evaluation of insects, algae, and products thereof, as well as on food industry by-products, as novel foods. He has been appointed as a reference point in the EFSA novel food Team regarding matters pertinent to food product characterisation and food processing. At EFSA, he has also provided support in mandates in the area of human nutrition. For his PhD studies at the School of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens he currently investigates, through the development and implementation of Risk-Benefit Assessment methods, how the substitution of red meat by other traditional or alternative protein sources may impact public health.
Rapporteur
Thematic session
Infectious diseases, from emergence to pandemics: improving understanding and getting prepared
See more23/06 - 09:00
Visit the agendaHelle Katrine Knutsen
Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH/FHI)
Short biography
Helle Katrine Knutsen is Senior Scientist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, where she started in 1999. She is a toxicologist with a PhD from the University in Oslo (1995) in cell and molecular biology and has more than 20 years’ experience in risk assessment of contaminants in food. Her research started with transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in primary testicular cells and continued with studies on intestinal carcinogenesis in mice in vivo and in vitro. Her current research engagement is related to biomonitoring of contaminants and effects of exposure to environmental contaminants on infant and child development, with particular interest in persistent organic pollutants and metals. Dr Knutsen is member of the EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA) and is chair of the EFSA NDA WG on Novel Foods since 2018. She is former member of the EFSA Panel on Contaminants (CONTAM) (2009-2018) and was CONTAM Chair 2015-2018. She is also chairing the panel on contaminant in the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM) and is member of the VKM Steering Committee.
Chair/Co-chair
22/06 - 14:00
Visit the agenda22/06 - 14:00
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Opening and welcome
22/06 - 14:00
22/06 - 14:00
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Q&A
22/06 - 14:25
22/06 - 14:00
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Wrap up and concluding remarks
22/06 - 17:05
Rapporteur
Angelo Cafaro
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Angelo Cafaro is a data scientist at EFSA’s MESE Unit where is involved in developing innovative methodologies for risk assessment based on AI and Big Data and providing supporting in the adoption of AI technologies. Prior to joining EFSA in 2020, he worked in the IT industry as project manager on complex multi-million, multi-partner, projects about AI and Big Data in the travel and banking domains. Previously, he worked as post-doctoral researcher at CNRS, in France, collaborating with research laboratories and institutions based in EU and US. He co-authored peer reviewed manuscripts published in international venues and worldwide recognized journals in the fields of AI and Human-Computer Interaction. He has been involved in the organization of international conferences and special tracks about AI, such as the socially interactive agents track at the 17th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2018 in Stockholm) and the Intelligent Virtual Agents series (from 2011 to 2017). He holds a PhD in computer science, from Reykjavik University in Iceland, focusing on AI, Natural Language Processing and Human-Computer interaction.
Rapporteur
Thematic session
Augmenting human minds: artificial intelligence and big data in risk assessment
See more22/06 - 09:00
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Cinzia Percivaldi
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Cinzia Percivaldi is an Engagement Officer at EFSA’s Engagement and External Relations (ENREL) Unit, where she is involved in the design and implementation of stakeholder engagement plans and large-scale multi-actor participatory processes. After leading EFSA’s Events Team from 2012 to 2020, Cinzia has been involved in the revision of EFSA’s stakeholder engagement framework and is now supporting EFSA’s foresight projects and risk assessment mandates from the engagement perspective.
She has a background in marketing and communication and has had over 20 years of professional experience, both in the public and private sector, mostly focusing on external relations, event management and stakeholder engagement. Before joining EFSA in 2006, she worked for the regional government of Lombardy in Italy and for a communication agency near Milan.
Cinzia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Translations and Interpreting from ISIT Milan and a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Parma. She has been a certified PMI-PMP project manager since 2016.
Rapporteur
21/06 - 14:00
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Thematic session
Advancing engagement in an evolving food safety ecosystem: opportunities and challenges
See more22/06 - 09:00
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24/06 - 08:30
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George Kass
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
George Kass was trained as a biochemist. He received his PhD in biochemical toxicology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 1990. After a post-doc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich he returned to the Karolinska Institute as Assistant Professor. In 1994 he moved to the University of Surrey in the UK where he became Professor of Toxicology. He moved to the European Food Safety Authority in 2009.
George Kass was awarded a DSc from the Karolinska Institute and the University of Turku in Finland and he holds or has held visiting posts with the University of Surrey, the National University of Ireland in Galway, Newcastle University, the University of Turku and the University of Rome.
He has published over 100 papers in the field of Toxicology. A substantial part of his research has focused on the molecular mechanisms of drug toxicity and on liver injury. He has been an invited speaker at many national and international conferences and is currently Associate Editor of the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology and on the editorial board of Chemico-Biological Interactions. In 2020, he was elected to the Académie d'Agriculture de France.
Rapporteur
23/06 - 09:00
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Wrap up and concluding remarks
23/06 - 12:15
Speaker
Max Blanck
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Max Blanck is External Engagement Officer at EFSA. He has dedicated most of his professional career to building partnerships and fostering stakeholder engagement for international policy dialogue. His current thematic focus lies on designing strategies to foster the engagement of stakeholders and interested parties in a dialogue to advance EFSA's scientific cooperation and networking across the food safety ecosystem. Prior to joining EFSA Max worked 12 years for FAO, designing multi-stakeholder policy dialogue initiatives in the field of food security and nutrition. He developed and managed expert networks and engaged in partnership-building activities with projects, clients, multi-agency initiatives and stakeholder groups. In addition to global activities where he collaborated with bodies such as the Committee on World Food Security he focused in particular on policy dialogue in Africa and Central Asia. He holds Master degrees in Development Economics from the Università degli Studi Roma Tre and in Human Rights Law from the University of Malta.
Rapporteur
Thematic session
Advancing engagement in an evolving food safety ecosystem: opportunities and challenges
See more22/06 - 09:00
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23/06 - 14:00
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Advancing engagement in an evolving food safety ecosystem: opportunities and challenges
23/06 - 16:00
Abstract of talk
The increase in scientific complexity, changing societal expectations, new policy and strategy initiatives, and new market trends create opportunities but also pose new challenges to the food safety ecosystem.
Based on the discussions taking place during the first One Society session, we will explore how all stakeholders in the food safety ecosystem can help to address the challenges outlined and contribute to reaching the overarching food and feed safety goals, while taking into account individual values and needs.
We will then touch upon the roles that engagement, cooperation, and collaboration can play in facilitating such an approach.
Rapporteur
Elisa Pettenati
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Elisa Pettenati graduated in 2015 as industrial biotechnologist at the University of Parma (Italy). After her studies she worked for a year in the laboratory of molecular genetics at the University of Parma and gained experience with techniques used in molecular biology, biotechnology and biochemistry. Then she gained professional experience in microorganisms working in microbiological laboratories of private companies in the pharmaceutical and food sectors. She joined the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2018 and currently holds the position of scientific officer in the FEED team of the Feed and Contaminants unit (FEEDCO Unit). She provides scientific and administrative support to the activities of the Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP Panel), as well as its Working Groups. In particular, she supports the FEEDAP Panel in the delivery of scientific opinions on the assessment of the safety and efficacy of feed additives.
Rapporteur
23/06 - 14:00
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Nikolaus Kriz
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Nik Kriz is Head of EFSA’s Risk Assessment Services Department.
He is a veterinary surgeon with 28 years of professional experience having worked in general practice, veterinary clinics and academia in four continents before moving to risk assessment in One Health at the European Medicines Agency. He then took on managerial functions in the area of parallel distribution and certificates, as well as supporting the work of the seven EMA scientific committees. In these roles Nik was responsible, among other things, for the EU regulation on substances essential for the treatment of Equidae and the development of guidance for multi-strain dossiers plus the early development of the new veterinary medicines regulation. He also implemented the public register for parallel distributed products in the EU, a major step towards improved transparency in the sector. Nik joined EFSA on 1 January 2017 as Head of Unit for Animal Health and Welfare and Plant Health, where he was responsible for delivering risk assessments for topics as diverse as Xylella fastidiosa, African swine fever, avian influenza and the welfare of farmed rabbits. The main achievements of his tenure were the scientific support provided to the European Commission in implementing the Animal Health Law, the setting up of an animal disease data model, partnering on data collections to analyse risks from diseases shared between wildlife, livestock and humans, the introduction of commodity risk assessment of high risk plants.
Thematic session
Advancing engagement in an evolving food safety ecosystem: opportunities and challenges
See more22/06 - 09:00
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Opening and welcome
22/06 - 09:00
Chair/Co-chair
Thematic session
Advancing engagement in an evolving food safety ecosystem: opportunities and challenges
See more22/06 - 09:00
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Advancing engagement in an evolving food safety ecosystem: opportunities and challenges
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The next steps that will be taken on the presented ecosystem approach to food and nutrition safety in Europe
22/06 - 12:25
Moderator
23/06 - 14:00
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Stephan Bronzwaer
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Stef Bronzwaer works at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), initially on the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance and food-borne outbreaks, later to lead the scientific cooperation with the Member States, and now as EFSA’s Research Coordinator: informing research agendas, promoting food research priorities, and coordinating EFSA’s research involvement. He graduated as medical doctor at the University of Amsterdam and completed his PhD at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). As a medical doctor he worked shortly at the Social Medical Centre ‘Bukas Palad’ in a slum-area near Manila, the Philippines. He then moved to the Infectious disease unit of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome, Italy, where he worked as project manager of an EU-project on communicable diseases. From 1998 to 2002 he worked in the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), where he helped establish the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS), as project leader. From 2002 to 2005 he worked at the European Commission in Luxembourg where he held responsibility for several European surveillance networks on communicable diseases and lead the implementation of the Community strategy against antimicrobial resistance.
Rapporteur
23/06 - 09:00
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Wrap up and concluding remarks
23/06 - 12:20
Speaker
23/06 - 14:00
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Making a difference: bridging EU research and policy
23/06 - 16:05
Abstract of talk
In support of the EU Green Deal, the ENVI Agencies (ECDC, ECHA, EEA, EFSA and EMA) contribute to a sustainable ‘One Health’ approach. In the coming decade, billions of euros will be dedicated to the research & innovation (R&I) needed to support a transition towards more sustainability. EU Agencies, individually and collectively, can make a difference in supporting the EU Research Agenda.
The thematic session ‘Turning open science into practice: causality as a showcase’ will include a short report of the discussion on bridging EU research and policy earlier that day (during the ONE Society morning session), talking about the peculiar role the Agencies play at the crossroads of the science-policy interface, and their current and expected involvement in research. The benefits of EU agency involvement in research will be presented briefly, as well as recommendations on how EU agencies could be involved further to generate additional value.
Rapporteur
Clémence Foltz
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Clémence Foltz is a trainee at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), where she is working in the Chief Scientist Office to reinforce EFSA's knowledge broker function through informing research agendas, promoting food safety research funding opportunities, and coordinating EFSA’s research involvement. She is also supporting the work of the EU Agencies Network on Scientific Advice (EU-ANSA) on learning from the response to COVID-19, coordinating the delivery of two reports that she co-authored. Prior to this, Clémence acquired professional experience in research administration and management at The Francis Crick Institute and then at The Institute of Cancer Research in London (UK). From 2015 to 2021, she has been driven to support scientists at different levels achieve their research aims by providing expert advice and help with the scoping, application, and management of grants. She also led on some aspects of research governance, focusing on activities related to good research practice and research integrity.
Clémence brings her interest and expertise in infectious diseases, with research experience in the fields of virology, bacteriology and parasitology. She holds an engineering degree in biotechnology from the Ecole Superieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg (France) and completed a PhD in Infection and Immunity at University College London (UCL, UK).
Rapporteur
23/06 - 09:00
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24/06 - 08:30
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Barbara Gallani
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Barbara Gallani is Head of EFSA’s Communication and Partnerships (ENGAGE) Department and has been a member of EFSA’s senior management team since May 2016.
Barbara has extensive experience of communicating complex issues in the areas of food safety, authenticity and research to lay audiences; managing incidents and food scares; and developing and delivering specialist training courses on risk communication for UK and global audiences. She was listed as one of the UK Top 100 Scientists by the Science Council in January 2014 for her work in regulatory science.
Before joining EFSA, she worked in the UK at the Food and Drink Federation, at the British Retail Consortium and at the UK Food Standards Agency, including a secondment to the European Commission (DG SANCO) and a BA Media Fellowship on science communication at the Daily Telegraph. She also worked at the European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC) in Brussels.
Barbara holds a Bachelor's Degree in Physics, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education PGCE (Physics and Sciences), a Master's Degree in Advanced Instrumentation Systems and a Professional Certificate in Executive Coaching.
Chair/Co-chair
21/06 - 14:00
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Welcome and introduction
21/06 - 14:30
21/06 - 14:00
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Welcome to Part 2
21/06 - 16:00
21/06 - 14:00
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Wrap up and concluding remarks
21/06 - 17:25
Rapporteur
Maria Arena
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Short biography
Dr Maria Arena is a senior scientific officer at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) since 2011. She has a background in food science and technology and a PhD in environmental sciences with a focus in ecotoxicology and environmental chemistry. In her current work, in the ecotoxicology team of the Pesticide Peer Review Unit of EFSA, she coordinates the activity of the EFSA Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR) and she contributes to the peer review of the environmental risk assessment of pesticide active substances used in plant protection products, in close cooperation with EU Member States. Additionally, she is involved in the assessment of the endocrine disrupting properties of pesticides on non-target organisms as well as in the development of new guidance documents. Before joining EFSA, she worked in several research institutes in Italy (University of Catania, University of Turin, University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza and European Commission-Joint Research Centre in Ispra).
Rapporteur
Thematic session
Endocrine disruptors: exploring present challenges and future developments (in memory of Alfonso Lostia)
See more23/06 - 14:00
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