The Stakeholder Forum is the formal channel for stakeholder input to the HBM4EU project and was established in May 2017. The members of the Stakeholder Forum were selected by the HBM4EU Management Board and the EU Policy Board and include the following:
- Chem Trust
- Downstream Users of Chemicals Co-ordination Group (DUCC)
- Eurometaux
- European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (UAPME)
- European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC)
- European Consumer Organisation (BEUC)
- European Environment Bureau (EEB)
- European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA)
- European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
- Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL)
- Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF)
The Stakeholder Forum will meet once annually at a minimum, back to back with the Governing Board. The first meeting was held on 5 September 2017. The minutes of the first meeting of the Stakeholder Forum are available here.
The Stakeholder Forum is invited to provide strategic input to key HBM4EU processes. The HBM4EU partners will engage actively with the Stakeholder Forum, through workshops and written requests for input.
In 2017, members of the Stakeholder Forum were invited to contribute to the prioritisation of substances for research and analysis under HBM4EU. As a first step, members of the Stakeholder Forum were invited to participate in an online survey from July to September 2017 in order to nominate substances for research. National Hubs and members of the EU Policy Board also nominated substances.
As a second step, a broader range of stakeholders were invited to a Stakeholder Workshop on Prioritisation, held in Brussels on 20 November 2017. The workshop provided a opportunity for stakeholders, as well as policy makers and scientists, to discuss the nominated substances, identify their key priorities and explain why these substances are of social concern. The agenda of the meeting is available here. A workshop report is being drafted an will be made available in January 2018.
The next step in the prioritisation strategy is the production of background documents and the scoring of nominated substances against the prioritisation criteria. Stakeholders will be asked to review the documents and the scores, prior to a final decision on the 2nd list of HBM4EU priority substances for research and analysis. For more information on the prioritisation strategy see here.