Advising European Union (EU) policymakers on challenges such as achieving climate neutrality and protecting citizen health requires bringing together a range of scientific perspectives and reflecting on the diversity of ecosystems, economies, governance levels, and cultures across Europe. The European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors works closely with the Science Advice for Policy of European academies to ensure advice to policymakers incorporates excellent and diverse expertise and evidence, relevant to the multiple levels of governance.

The pandemic has shown the importance of science to underpin policymaking. Excellent scientific output is not enough -- the main challenge is to bridge the gap between science and policy. This requires a variety of mechanisms, tools and institutionalized pathways, allowing the analytical power of research to inform the normative universe of policymaking. The European Union (EU) is an interesting case in point, as a multilevel policymaking system. Legislation at EU level trickles down to member states, which have their own areas of competence. Implementation of policies at the local level also needs to be evidence-informed. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) addresses each of these levels, by producing relevant knowledge, but also by connecting and boosting the various “ecosystems” of science for policy. This session will explore the importance of thriving and well-connected science for policy ecosystems. The session will offer a diversity of perspectives from the EU, national and subnational levels, and show how JRC is actively supporting and connecting these through tools like Science meets Regions and the e-workshops on science for policy ecosystems. Keynote presentations will be followed by an open discussion about how to navigate the different governance levels in EU policymaking, and what general messages can be distilled from the EU experience in a broader international context. A comparative perspective with the United States will be included.