On 10 November 2023, we celebrated World Science Day. This year's edition highlighted the importance of building trust in science. The ILSI federation believes scientific integrity is essential to building this trust and developing sound science that benefits society. That's why ILSI's robust Principles for Scientific Integrity are integral to our work.
How do ILSI's Scientific Principles resonate with ILSI Europe's work?
A Balanced Governance: Our Board of Directors (BOD) and Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) are meticulously composed to ensure a balanced blend of academia and industry representation, fostering diverse perspectives and ensuring scientific integrity. The BOD comprises a number of representatives from academic or public institutions equal to or exceeding the number of directors from ILSI Europe's member companies. Meanwhile, the SAC comprise over 50% of experts from the non-industry sector.
Diversity in our Task Forces: Our Task Forces mirror diversity, with participants from companies of varying sizes. We ensure smaller companies have an equal voice: all are represented by a single member per company. Furthermore, all Task Force include one or more academic member acting as a scientific advisor who provide guidance on the long-term scientific work program.
Rigorously Reviewed Initiatives: All scientific activities initiated by our Task Forces undergo a meticulous review by the SAC and by external experts. These reviewers meticulously assess scientific validity, integrity, and ensure a balanced group of experts, with a minimum of 50% academic and public sector researchers, and that the research activity is devoid of any bias or pre-conceived opinions.
Voluntary In-Kind Contributions: All experts engaged in ILSI Europe’s contribute their expertise in-kind and voluntarily. Our collective dedication is to advance scientific understanding for the greater good. No financial remuneration is involved for members of our governance bodies. Only non-industry scientists may have their travel expenses reimbursed for meetings or events, and may accept a small honorarium after a paper they authored is published.
Transparent Affiliation Disclosures: In all publications resulting from an ILSI Europe activity, authors publish under the auspices of the organization they are working for, whether industry, academia or public sector. We also disclose the affiliation of all experts involved in our studies, events and other communications. This commitment to openness ensures that our stakeholders have a clear understanding of the backgrounds and affiliations of those contributing to our initiatives.
ILSI Europe in the EU Transparency Register
ILSI Europe is officially registered in the EU Transparency Register, in the non-governmental organisation category (identification numer: 241834336293-06). As the EU institutions interact with a wide range of groups and organisations representing specific interests, the Transparency Register "is a tool to allow European citizens to see what interests are being represented at Union level and on whose behalf, as well as the financial and human resources dedicated to these activities." Being part of this register shows that ILSI Europe complies with the EU Transparency standards. ILSI Europe openly describes the scientific events and activities performed, by whom and their budgets.
ILSI Europe stands firm in promoting trust, transparency and scientific integrity. Our purpose is to excel in generating scientific evidence that will benefit public health, under the consensus of Academics, Industry and Public Institutions.