The first cycle of EFSA's Fellowship Programme (EU‐FORA) is approaching its completion and, as foreseen at the beginning, it is time for the 15 fellows to present the key activities they have undertaken at the hosting sites during this past year. That is the purpose of this special issue of the EFSA Journal.
We were happy to see that the different work programmes across the various hosting organisations were quite diverse in nature and cover a broad swathe of issues related to risk assessment as it pertains to food safety.
The most impressive aspect for those of us involved in the programme at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was that the fellows not only increased their knowledge of food risk assessment significantly (the main goal of the programme) but that many of them also worked on innovative topics, thereby creating new scientific knowledge. Many of these new developments will be the subject of scientific publications in the coming months and years.
A key added value of the EU‐FORA programme, which unfortunately cannot be fully reflected in the present reports, was the strong networking that developed during the programme: between the various hosting organisations and the organisations of origin and of course among the fellows.
We hope that this special issue of the EFSA Journal will serve as inspiration for more Article 36 organisations to apply as hosting sites for the EU‐FORA programme and that it will increase the interest of young‐ to middle‐career scientists in the area of food safety risk assessment and encourage them to apply as candidate fellows.
For the fellows whose reports are included here, we would like to congratulate them and thank them for the professionalism, dedication, passion and resilience they have exhibited during the programme. We are sure that our paths will often meet again in different food safety risk assessment settings.
On behalf of the EU‐FORA programme
Stylianos KOULOURIS
Engagement and Scientific Cooperation Officer
EU‐FORA Programme Manager
ENCO/COMCO
Approved: 6 July 2018