Hans Marvin from RIKILT, WUR on DEMETER - Development of Methodologies and Systems for the Identification of Emerging Food Safety Risks. Joint Workshop on Food Risk Assessment Research & Practice 24th November 2017, Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands

1. General introduction to project Demeter
DEtermination and METrics of Emerging Risks
Overall coordinator Dr. Hans Marvin (Wageningen Research RIKILT)

2. Quick facts
 Response to EFSA call ‘Methods and systems for the identification of
emerging food risks’
 Kick-off meeting: 11 April 2017
 Duration: 36 months
 Objective: to support current (and future) EFSA procedures for
emerging risks identification by providing a set of integrated, open-
source solutions that will allow EFSA and EU Member State
authorities to share data, knowledge and methods in a rapid and
effective manner.
 In cooperation with:
● Global consultative stakeholder group
● EREN members
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3. Consortium partners
3
Applicant Stichting Wageningen
Research
• WR-RIKILT
• WR-FBR
WR
Partner 1 Wageningen University,
Department of Social Sciences
WU
Partner 2 University of Newcastle upon
Tyne
UNEW
Partner 3 Federal Institute for Risk
Assessment
BfR
Partner 4 National Food Chain Safety
Office
NÉBIH

4. 4
Diagram of Project DEMETER’s five integrated
work packages
WP1: Data
retrieval and
validation
pipelines
[WR-RIKILT]
WP2:
Methodological
resources from
social sciences
[UNEW]
WP3: Platform
requirements
[UNEW]
WP4: Platform Implementation [BfR]
WP5:Management&
Dissemination
[WR-RIKILT]
Global
consultative
stakeholder
group
Reference
panel (EREN
members)

5. WP1: Data retrieval
and validation
pipelines
WP3:
Platform
requirements
WP2:
Methodological
resources
5
The emerging risks identification framework set in
place by EFSA. Modified from Costa et al. (2016)

6. WP Objectives (1)
1. To create automated data retrieval, data validation and data mining
pipelines that provide input to EFSA staff and responsible national
stakeholders in their judgements on identification of possible
emerging issues.
2. To develop a methodology to systematically integrate information
and data from social sciences or derived from social science
methodologies, into the emerging risk identification framework.
3. To build on and further develop EREN member state usage of the
EFSA emerging risk identification framework currently in place.
Current EREN membership is limited, potentially because barriers to
utilising the current system are perceived by potential end-users.
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7. WP Objectives (2)
4. To facilitate software-technical implementation of the desired
collaborative platform (ERKEP) supporting current EFSA procedures
for emerging risks identification. Specifically this platform will allow
EU Member State authorities and EFSA to share knowledge, data
and methods for the identification of emerging food-related risks in
a rapid and effective manner.
This task is also responsible for providing necessary internal
training on the open source KNIME data mining solution that will
be used (among others) within WP1 and WP2
5. To ensure proper coordination, integration and execution of the
DEMETER activities on all levels regarding project management &
financial matters, communication and dissemination.
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8. Global consultative stakeholder group (1)
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9. Global consultative stakeholder group (2)
Member State authorities:
 BVL (DE), NVWA (NL), FSA (UK)
Institutes with experience in data retrieval/emerging risk
identification:
 FPDI: FIDES - integration of data to provide a comprehensive,
systematic process for monitoring potential food threats and
identifying adverse food events (food defense)
 AU-DAWR: IBIS – automatically aggregates articles (search
engines, research articles, etc.), and links them to specific
emerging (plant and animal) biosecurity issues.
 FAO: EMPRES – identifies emerging plant and animal
diseases through early warning, early reaction and research
activities
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10. Anticipated outcomes
Major deliverables:
 “Concept Note” describing the DEMETER vision of a
Collaborative Emerging Risk Knowledge Exchange Framework
 New tools for automatic data retrieval and validation
 Methodology to integrate info and data from social sciences
 Development of a Collaborative Emerging Risk Knowledge
Exchange Platform (ERKEP)
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11. End
Thank you!