Call for expressions of interest (closed)

Introduction

The European Climate Law, adopted in June 2021, sets out a binding objective of climate neutrality in the European Union (EU) by 2050 in pursuit of the long-term temperature goal set out in the Paris Agreement, and provides a framework for achieving progress in pursuit of the global adaptation goal established in the Paris Agreement. It also sets out for 2030 a binding EU target of a net domestic reduction of at least 55 % in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990.

The European Climate Law also provides for the establishment of a European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (the ‘Advisory Board’), through an amendment of the founding regulation of the European Environment Agency (EEA). See more information about the EEA further below.

The Advisory Board will provide independent scientific advice and produce reports on EU measures, climate targets and indicative greenhouse gas budgets and their coherence with the European climate law and the EU's international commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Aim of the call

The European Climate Law tasks the EEA Management Board to designate the 15 members of the Advisory Board. The members will be chosen for a mandate of four years, with no more than two members having the nationality of the same Member State, following an open, fair and transparent selection procedure. In its selection of the members of the Advisory Board, the Management Board will seek to ensure a varied disciplinary and sectoral expertise, as well as gender and geographical balance. The members of the Advisory Board will be appointed in a personal capacity and shall give their positions completely independently of the Member States and the Union institutions.

The EEA is issuing this call for expressions of interest with the aim of designating the members of the Advisory Board. Persons who are interested in becoming a member of the Advisory Board are invited to express their interest in accordance with the rules set out below.

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (the 'Advisory Board')

Scientific expertise and the best available, up-to-date evidence, together with information on climate change that is both factual and transparent, are imperative and need to underpin the Union’s climate action and efforts to reach climate neutrality by 2050. The Advisory Board should serve as a point of reference on scientific knowledge relating to climate change by virtue of its independence and scientific and technical expertise. It should complement the work of the EEA while acting independently in discharging its tasks. Its mission should avoid any overlap with the mission of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at international level.

As set out in Article 3(2) of the European Climate Law, the tasks of the Advisory Board shall include:

• considering the latest scientific findings of the IPCC reports and scientific climate data, in particular with regard to information relevant to the European Union;
• providing scientific advice and issuing reports on existing and proposed European Union measures, climate targets and indicative greenhouse gas budgets, and their coherence with the objectives of this Regulation and the European Union’s international commitments under the Paris Agreement;
• contributing to the exchange of independent scientific knowledge in the field of modelling, monitoring, promising research and innovation which contribute to reducing emissions or increasing removals;
• identifying actions and opportunities needed to successfully achieve the European Union climate targets;
• raising awareness on climate change and its impacts, as well as stimulating dialogue and cooperation between scientific bodies within the European Union, complementing existing work and efforts.

The Advisory Board shall be guided in its work by the best available and most recent scientific evidence, including the latest reports of the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and other international bodies. It shall follow a fully transparent process and make its reports publicly available. It may take into account, where available, the work of the national climate advisory bodies that are responsible for providing expert scientific advice on climate policy to the relevant national authorities.

The initial tasks of the Advisory Board will consist in electing its chairperson, defining its work programme and adopting its rules of procedure.

Members of the Advisory Board will be expected to attend its meetings on a regular basis, on a frequency to be agreed upon between them. Meetings will either be held either physically or remotely. Members will receive travel and subsistence allowance in accordance with the Agency’s policy for the reimbursement of travel and accommodation expenses.

Members of the Advisory Board shall be entitled to an honorarium for attending its meetings and for each full day of participation in other meetings when their contribution is specifically requested by the Chair of the EEA Management Board or the EEA Executive Director.

When establishing its annual work programme, the Advisory Board will have to consult the EEA Management Board.

The EEA will provide a secretariat to support the Advisory Board.

Designation procedure

The members of the Advisory Board shall be designated on the basis of their professional and technical ability to carry out the tasks set out for the Advisory Board by the European Climate Law.

Evaluation Committee

To facilitate the designation of the Advisory Board by the EEA Management Board, following an open, fair and transparent selection procedure, the EEA Management Board will establish an independent evaluation committee to identify the most suitable candidates for the Advisory Board (‘Evaluation Committee’). The Evaluation Committee shall provide recommendations to the EEA Management Board on conclusion of the evaluation process.

The Evaluation Committee shall be composed of seven members, including the Chair of the EEA Management Board, the EEA Executive Director, the Chair of the EEA Scientific Committee, and four other members of the EEA Scientific Committee. The Evaluation Committee shall be chaired by the EEA Executive Director.

In coordination with the Chair of the EEA Scientific Committee, the EEA Executive Director shall identify the four other members of the EEA Scientific Committee that are most suitable to be appointed as members of the Evaluation Committee.

The members of the EEA Scientific Committee that are most suitable to be appointed as members of the Evaluation Committee, in addition to the Chair of the Scientific Committee, shall be identified based on the following criteria of scientific excellence: relevant scientific or technical expertise in the domain of climate change, including relevant work experience on climate science, preferably in the context of the IPCC, or competencies in the analysis of socio-technical systems from a climate science and climate policy perspective.

By delegation from the EEA Management Board, its Chair shall appoint the members of the Evaluation Committee, based on a proposal from the EEA Executive Director.

The list of the Evaluation Committee members shall be made publicly available after the deadline for applications to the call for expressions of interest for members of the Advisory Board, and prior to the beginning of the work of the Evaluation Committee. The list will be available at: www.eea.europa.eu/about-us/climate-advisory-board/evaluation-committee. 

The Chair of the EEA Management Board shall be responsible for ensuring the absence of any conflict of interest between the appointed members of the Evaluation Committee, and for the confidential treatment of all expressions of interest.

Evaluation procedure

The Evaluation Committee will screen and evaluate all eligible applications based on the selection criteria identified below. Following the evaluation process, the Evaluation Committee will identify a short list of 25 to 35 potential suitable candidates for becoming members of the Advisory Board.

The shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview with the Evaluation Committee.

Following interviews of the shortlisted candidates, the Evaluation Committee will identify the 15 most suitable candidates for becoming members of the Advisory Board, and will establish a reserve list of at least 5 additional suitable candidates. The Evaluation Committee will then provide recommendations to the EEA Management Board with the list of the 15 most suitable candidates for becoming members of the Advisory Board, as well as the reserve list.

The EEA Management Board will discuss the proposal from the Evaluation Committee and designate the members of the Advisory Board, based on the recommendations from the Evaluation Committee.

Selection criteria

Eligible expressions of interest will be subject to a comparative evaluation against the following criteria set out in Art. 10a (3) of the EEA Regulation, as amended by Art. 12 of the European Climate Law:

• scientific excellence;
• experience in carrying out scientific assessments and providing scientific advice in the fields of expertise;
• broad expertise in the field of climate and environment sciences or other scientific fields relevant for the achievement of the European Union´s climate objectives;
• professional experience in an inter-disciplinary environment in an international context.

To ensure that the Advisory Board covers a broad range of relevant disciplines, the Evaluation Committee will consider experience in the following areas, in line with the tasks foreseen for the Advisory Board by the European Climate Law:

• consideration of scientific findings of the IPCC reports and scientific climate data, in particular with regard to information relevant to the European Union;
• provision of scientific advice and issuance of reports on existing and proposed European Union measures, climate targets and indicative greenhouse gas budgets, and their coherence with the objectives of this Regulation and the European Union’s international commitments under the Paris Agreement;
• contribution to the exchange of independent scientific knowledge in the field of modelling, monitoring, promising research and innovation which contribute to reducing emissions or increasing removals;
• identification of actions and opportunities needed to successfully achieve the European Union climate targets;
• awareness raising on climate change and its impacts;
• work in a scientific body within the European Union.

As set out in the European Climate Law, the evaluation process will take into consideration the need to ensure, in the identification of the most suitable candidates:

• a varied disciplinary and sectoral expertise;
• gender balance;
• geographical balance, in particular that no more than two of the most suitable candidates hold the nationality of the same Member State.

Furthermore, excellent knowledge of English is important since this will be the working language of the Advisory Board.

In order to foster gender balance in the Advisory Board, applications from women are strongly encouraged.

Eligibility criteria

For their application to be considered, candidates must fulfil the following eligibility criteria:

• Have a doctoral degree (PhD) or equivalent degree in an area of scientific or technical expertise relevant to climate science. For the purpose of this call, climate science is understood as the broad range of topics assessed by the three working groups of the IPCC.
• Have at least 10 years’ professional experience in the field of climate and environment sciences or other scientific fields relevant for the achievement of the European Union's climate objectives.
• Be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union.

Any application that does not match all of the above eligibility criteria will be systematically rejected. If you do not meet all the above eligibility criteria and have no significant experience that matches the selection criteria, please do not apply.

Application procedure

You are requested to submit your expression of interest by sending a Europass curriculum vitae (see below) and a motivation letter to the e-mail address: applications.advisoryboard@eea.europa.eu.

The CV shall be provided in a Europass format. You can either use a Europass CV template and fill it in offline, or create your Europass CV directly online. The CV shall contain a list of your scientific publications, preferably in English, and other professional experience. (See instructions for filling in the Europass CV).

You may apply in any of the official languages of the European Union but the use of English is encouraged to facilitate the process.

Important

Please do not leave it until the last minute to submit your application and remember to take time zones into consideration when submitting your application.

Once your application has been submitted, you will receive an automatic reply. It is your responsibility to keep the automatic reply message as proof of submission of your application. Should you not receive an automatic reply message, please check whether the e-mail has been filtered by the spam filter set up on your e-mail account. Please re-submit your application if this is not the case, or contact the Advisory Board Secretariat at the e-mail address: applications.advisoryboard@eea.europa.eu.

Supporting documents may be requested at a later stage.

All expressions of interest will be treated as confidential.

Candidates are kindly requested to direct any questions on the current call to the Advisory Board Secretariat at the e-mail address: applications.advisoryboard@eea.europa.eu.

Independence and declarations of interest

Selected experts will be appointed on a personal basis. They will be required to sign a declaration of commitment and make a declaration of interests on an annual basis, which may be deemed prejudicial to their independence. Declarations of commitment and of interest will be published on the EEA website.

Equal opportunity

The EEA is an equal opportunities institution committed to avoid any form of discrimination, both when it comes to recruitment and when dealing with involvement in networks and governance bodies such as the Advisory Board.

Personal data protection

Any personal data provided by the applicant shall be processed pursuant to European Regulation related to personal data protection, in particular Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movements of such data. This applies in particular to the confidentiality and security of such data.

The purpose of processing the personal data which candidates submit is to manage expressions of interest with a view to possible pre-selection, selection and the designation of members of the Advisory Board.

Applicants shall have the right of access to their personal data and the right to rectify or update any such data that is inaccurate or incomplete at any time during the application procedure. The right to rectify can only be exercised up to the closing date for submission of applications. However, inaccurate identification data may be rectified at any time during and after the application procedure. Any request for access or rectification of personal data shall be addressed in writing to the Advisory Board Secretariat at the address: European Environment Agency, Kongens Nytorv 6, 1050 Copenhagen K, Denmark, or at the e-mail address: applications.advisoryboard@eea.europa.eu.

Applicants can, upon request, be provided with their evaluation results at all stages of the selection procedure. The request must be submitted to the Advisory Board Secretariat at the address: European Environment Agency, Kongens Nytorv 6, 1050 Copenhagen K, Denmark, or at the e-mail address: applications.advisoryboard@eea.europa.eu.

Should an applicant have any query concerning the processing of her/his personal data, s/he shall address them to the European Environment Agency at the e-mail address: dataprotectionofficer@eea.europa.eu.

Applicants are entitled to have recourse at any time to the European Data Protection Supervisor (edps@edps.europa.eu) if they consider that their rights under Regulation (EC) No 1725/2018 have been infringed as a result of the processing of their personal data by the EEA.

The European Environment Agency

The EEA is an agency of the European Union, whose task is to provide sound, independent data and information on Europe’s environment and climate to European citizens and policy makers. The regulation establishing the EEA was adopted by the European Union in 1990, and the Agency started operations in Copenhagen in 1994. The regulation also established the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet). Eionet is a partnership network of the EEA, and its member and cooperating countries. The EEA also works with a wide range of other partners, including the European Commission services, OECD, UN bodies, international conventions, research communities, the private sector and civil society.

The EEA’s vision is to enable a sustainable Europe through trusted and actionable knowledge for informed decision-making on environment and climate priorities and solutions, in line with Europe’s policy ambitions. Along with the EEA’s vision and mission, the EEA-Eionet Strategy 2021-2030 outlines strategic objectives and areas of work for the period 2021-2030. The EEA’s detailed work is planned and implemented through Single Programming Documents, which include annual priorities. The Consolidated Annual Activity Reports describe the work that has been carried out in the respective years.

The EEA Executive Director is responsible to the management board for the implementation of the programmes and for the day-to-day running of the EEA.

The EEA is governed by a Management Board and Bureau, with a Scientific Committee in an advisory capacity. The EEA Management Board consists of one representative of each of the member countries, two representatives of the Commission and two scientific experts designated by the European Parliament. Among its tasks, the EEA Management Board adopts the multi-annual work programme, the annual work programmes and the annual reports, appoints the EEA Executive Director and designates the members of the EEA Scientific Committee.

The EEA Scientific Committee advises the EEA Management Board and the EEA Executive Director. Its three major tasks are to deliver an opinion on the EEA multi-annual and annual work-programmes, to give an opinion to the EEA Executive Director for the purposes of recruitment of the Agency's scientific staff, and to provide advice and/or opinion on any scientific matter concerning the Agency's activity, which the EEA Management Board or the EEA Executive Director may submit to it.