The JRC hosts the Commission’s Knowledge and Competence Centres.
Knowledge Centres are virtual entities, bringing together experts and expertise from various locations in and outside the European Commission. Their aim is to inform policymakers in a transparent, tailored, and concise manner about the status and findings of the latest scientific evidence. They are designed to be a ‘one-stop shop’ in their respective areas and include communities of practice.
Competence Centres, on the other hand, focus on analytical tools applicable across various policy areas, while uniting extensive expertise in the field in a single platform. They offer training courses in the use of the tools for policymaking, advise on the choice of tools and work directly with the Commission Directorates-General to apply them to the policy problems at hand.
EC Knowledge Centres (KCs)
KC for Biodiversity
develops tools that support the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. It presents relevant information and makes it accessible; brings together researchers, policymakers, NGOs, industry, and citizens; analyses available evidence, and communicates it in a transparent, tailored, and concise manner.
KC on Bioeconomy
supports policymaking by gathering relevant information, fostering collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and field experts; and providing precise, comprehensive, and succinct evaluations and summaries of existing evidence.
KC on Cancer
fosters independent scientific alignment, coordination and support to EC cancer-related policies and activities. It is built on the European Cancer Information System (ECIS)—cancer burden; European Cancer Inequalities Registry (ECIR)—cancer inequalities; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention—cancer prevention; European Guidelines and Quality Assurance Schemes—cancer screening, diagnosis and care; and the EU Platform on Rare Disease Registration (EU RD Platform)—rare cancers.
KC for Disaster Risk Management
brings together policymakers and experts dealing with disaster risk at the Commission, EU countries and around the world to build networks and partnerships to transfer science into policy; integrate, merge, and share knowledge across sectors and co-develop innovative solutions for the mitigation of disasters and their impact.
KC on Earth Observation (EO)
helps EU policymakers to fully exploit the growing amount of EO data, products, and applications by assessing needs of EU policies and translating these into technical requirements for EO products and services; analysing research needs and priorities for innovating in EU Earth Observation programmes and bringing together an active community of scientists, policymakers, and specialists.
KC for Food Fraud and Quality
provides and shares up-to-date scientific knowledge on food fraud and food quality issues. It coordinates market surveillance activities and employs early warning and information systems for food fraud.
KC for Global Food and Nutrition Security
contributes to better policy making by offering a one-stop source of curated information. It gathers, organises, and makes accessible the most relevant information, data, and tools. It also analyses and synthesises available knowledge. Furthermore, it builds a shared understanding of facts through the creation of new knowledge according to policy needs and the promotion of networking between experts and policymakers.
KC on Migration and Demography
deepens the understanding of opportunities and challenges related to demographic change and migration. It supports evidence-informed EU policymaking in areas related to demography, migration, and mobility.
EC Competence Centres (CCs))
CC on Behavioural Insights
is part of the EU Policy Lab, a space for cross-disciplinary exploration and innovation in policymaking. Its goal is to use behavioural insights to help design better policies; bridge the gap between policymakers and behavioural researchers and increase the use of behavioural insights for policy, when relevant.
CC on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards.
Under the banner of ‘Good policies start with good measurement,’ its mission is to develop and apply statistical methods and data visualisation tools to provide insights on complex multidimensional policy phenomena, monitor performance, and help steer policy interventions at national, regional, and local levels.
CC on Foresight.
supports EU policy making by providing strategic and future-oriented input, developing an anticipatory culture inside the European Commission, continuously experimenting, and developing different methods and tools to make foresight useful for decision-making processes.
CC on Microeconomic Evaluation
contributes to better EU regulation and spending through evaluation and data-driven microeconomic analysis of EU policies; provides causal evidence on which policy measures work in different areas including social, industrial, and environmental policies; advises EU institutions and Member States on the use of good quality impact evaluations; brings together researchers, policymakers and other experts in the field of impact evaluation; and builds capacity among policymakers on impact evaluation.
CC on Modelling and Decision Analysis
promotes a responsible, coherent, and transparent use of modelling to support the evidence base for EU policies. It pools the Commission’s competencies and best practices in building and using models. It further helps finding common approaches to quality and transparency of model use and eases dialogue between policy makers and modelling teams across the Commission. Main activities: corporate modelling inventory and knowledge management; sensitivity analysis of models; peer review of models; transparency and coherence in science for policy.
CC on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy
supports EU policymaking by enriching the EU knowledge base on participatory and deliberative practices; providing guidance for researchers and policymakers; building capacity on methodologies; developing dedicated public spaces for citizen engagement; experimenting with new methodologies.
CC for Technology Transfer
is the single reference point for expertise and services in technology transfer (TT) at the European Commission. It aims to deepen and share competencies and knowledge on technology transfer in capacity building, financing, and innovation ecosystems.
CC on Text Mining and Analysis
is a focal point for text mining at the European Commission. Examples of recent challenges include using multilingual topic mining to understand citizens’ concerns in public consultations; developing targeted sentiment analysis for news and social media; refining automated event detection from news for crisis awareness purposes; and following the propagation of narratives during the COVID-19 crisis.