Advisory Committee on Research

The Advisory Committee on Research (ACR) helped the Agency develop its research and survey work.

The Committee, established in 2002, played an important part in ensuring that the Agency has a first class research portfolio and its research is firmly focused on providing the evidence the Agency needs to develop its policy aims and objectives - especially making the research relevant to the needs of consumers. It also helped to identify future areas of research the Agency needed to protect public health.

The Committee's role was to:

• Review and advise the FSA Board on the Agency's research and survey programmes;
• Help the Agency identify the best sources of research and survey expertise;
• Advise on the Agency's research and science policy in relation to the EU and other collaborators;
• Advise on new research areas and consider whether the Agency should fund the projects itself or encourage funding from other organisations; and
• Advise on how research and science should sit within the overall strategy of the Agency.

In February 2007, the FSA Board considered findings of a review of the role of the ACR led by the Agency's Chief Scientist. The review acknowledged the ACR had made a valuable contribution to the Agency’s management of its science and research, completing much of its initial work programme. It concluded the Agency now needed to strengthen the independent challenge it received on the broad range of science it used in developing policy. The FSA Board agreed to the recommendation that the Advisory Committee on Research should be disbanded and that its remaining research functions should be incorporated into the remit of the new overarching General Advisory Committee on Science (GACS).