Summary of the ONE SOCIETY track > opportunities and challenges

Abstract

This report summarises the main discussions, conclusions and recommendations of the ‘One Society’ track of the ‘ONE – Health, Environment & Society – Conference 2022’ (21st–24th June 2002; Brussels and online), which was organised by the European Food Safety Authority. The four themes in the One Society track focused on risk communication, social science, engagement, including collaboration, the EU research agenda, and open science: more specifically, their integration into our understanding of existing and emerging food safety risks within agri-food systems, and as part of the ‘One Health’ context. The conclusions suggested that understanding food safety risks within ‘One Health’ requires collaboration and co-production of risk assessment and research objectives, data, methodologies and translation into policy with all interested actors, including the general public. Furthermore, effective implementation of open science practices and inter-agency collaboration are key to ensuring that policy and governance conditions can be optimised within the context of the transdisciplinary research environment in which the ‘One Health’ concept is embedded. Among main outcomes, the ‘One Society’ track clearly highlighted the need to: i) realise the EU’s collaborative food safety knowledge ecosystem, as no single actor can master the level of complexity alone, ii) consistently apply an ‘audience-first’ approach and use participatory formats from science to policymaking; iii) dedicate resources to build bridges with research projects; and iv) make open science a reality and a ‘default’ principle for regulatory science.