Developing a health risk assessment training scheme in Europe: the Risk ASSETsTM project

Health risk assessment is an essential public health tool widely used in health protection and regulatory contexts to inform risk management decisions and to help protect public health. However, in recent years, concerns have been expressed over the apparent shortage of trained risk assessors in Europe, the effects this may have on the sustainability of risk assessment advice at European Union, national and private sector levels1, and the lack of suitable training opportunities available for scientists to gain expertise and qualifications in risk assessment2 . With this in mind, the European Commission recently supported the Risk Assessment and Management - European Training (Risk ASSETsTM) Programme project to assess training needs and develop a proposal for a European health risk assessment training programme. The project comprised: o Assessment of the profile and training needs of health risk assessors o Development of a learning, knowledge and skills framework o Development of health risk assessment training material o Development of a proposed administrative framework for the training programme . This report summarises the main results of the project.