Scientific literature review on group decision‐making models

Abstract

EFSA commissioned a review of available scientific literature on group decision-making in regulatory science to inform future recommendations for EFSA's panel system. This final summary report presents the results from the literature review that has been performed based on a list of 30 articles, proposed and validated in the ‘methodological note’ in the kick-off phase of this work. The review covers the following topics: social science theories and models of group decision-making; research on group decision-making in risks assessment, specifically in food safety; research on group decision-making in regulatory science, and group decision-making models adopted by national/EU/international organisations. The findings describe the factors that contribute to effective and efficient decision-making in groups, specific factors to consider for expert panels, some potential shortcomings of group decision-making to take into account, and some final considerations to inform EFSA's evaluation of its panel system.