Europe’s chief scientist finally announced

Scotland’s chief scientist is to be appointed as Europe’s long-awaited first chief scientific advisor.

Anne Glover, professor of molecular and cell biology at Aberdeen University, is expected to inform European policy on the environment, climate change and health. 

Her role, due to be announced by the European Commission on Monday (5 December), is part of Commission president Jose Manual Barroso’s commitment to raise the profile of science and research in Brussels.

The appointment of Professor Glover, who has been Scotland’s chief scientist since 2006, has been welcomed by the NFU, which has long-called for the Commission to fill the role since it was announced in 2009.

“This is a very positive step from the European Commission,” an NFU Brussels spokesman said.

“We are faced with huge global challenges to feed the world population sustainably and it is clear that the solutions from the EU must be underpinned by sound science and not destroyed by intransigent politics.”

Regulations to slash the number of pesticides available to farmers and Brussels’ prohibitive stance on genetically modified crops have previously been identified by the NFU as two areas where science has been over-ruled by politics.

Research and ensuring the European Commission received the best scientific advice into areas like these were essential if farmers across Europe were to tackle food security issues, the spokesman said.

“The UK Government’s chief scientific advisor Professor Sir John Beddington has been an instrumental voice in putting food security back on the political agenda and advising smart solutions based on science,” he added.

“We are delighted he will now have an equivalent in Europe. 

Speaking earlier this year, UK chief scientist Sir John Beddington said the appointment of an EU chief scientific adviser would be “advantageous” to inform European policy.

He said science and research needed to be placed higher up the agenda by governments across Europe if farmers were to be educated in the best way to “sustainably intensify” food production.