EFSA's Catalogue of support initiatives during the life‐cycle of applications for regulated products

Abstract

As part of EFSA's ongoing commitment to engage with its stakeholders and to increase understanding of its scientific risk assessment work, EFSA has developed a customer-oriented approach to stakeholders in the area of applications for regulated products with the aim of establishing an interactive and responsive evaluation process. The current version of the Catalogue provides a list of harmonised support initiatives targeted to applicants that are currently implemented in EFSA during the entire life-cycle of applications for regulated products from the preparation of the application (pre-submission phase) to the adoption and publication of EFSA's scientific output. The description of each initiative includes the nature and the scope of the service, the phase in the life-cycle of the application, the format, the unit in charge, the date from which the service is in place, the participants involved, the type of outcome expected, who can request the service, when and how to access the service. By describing the details of each support initiative, EFSA wishes to increase awareness on the initiatives and especially encourage an active accessibility to the different services in place for applicants as of 27 March 2021. The Catalogue includes the general pre-submission advice and the renewal pre-submission advice, introduced by the Transparency Regulation amending the General Food Law and other sectoral legal acts, as new possibilities of interaction with EFSA. Tailored services for small and medium-sized enterprises are also introduced.