One of the greatest challenges of the future is to guarantee the nutritional requirements of the growing global population, against more and more limited natural resources. Science, research and innovation play an essential role in developing definitive proposals on food safety and sustainability in the agricultural field.

In order to spread the value of scientific dimension, the European Union has established for Expo2015 a Steering Board of the Scientific Programme, with actions aimed at fostering International debate. At the end of the conference “Towards a Research Agenda for Global Food and Nutrition Security”, officially inaugurating this cooperation, Vladimir Sucha, Director General of the Joint Research Centre, explained during an interview how the Scientific Board was born and what are its goals.

“The idea was born in the European Parliament. The initiative then involved the European Commission and the Joint Research Centre, today leading the coordination of the Scientific Board, composed by eleven internationally renowned members and by the President Franz Fischler, former Commissioner for agriculture and fishing. Thanks to them – Sucha explained – an interesting process has started (overall duration of one year), aimed at fostering the circulation of ideas and the sharing of proposals between experts and scientists from all over the world”.

More than 25 in-depth events are scheduled for Expo, at the end of which a document-guide summarizing the emerged issues will be presented. “We have confidence in the usefulness of this tool in the hands of decision makers, in order to set the future priorities in the field of research, development and innovation for food and agriculture. We also launched an online scientific consultation, mainly addressed to the community of experts, but also open to everyone: the industry, the different stakeholders, the civil society, included the citizens. The common goal is to lay the foundations of a better future”.