Bringing together the national science academies of the EU Member States as well as Switzerland and Norway, EASAC aims to provide research results, evidences and facts from credible sources by independent experts to European policy-makers who then can use this knowledge to make well-informed policy decisions. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is represented in EASAC's main governing body by Professor József Pálinkás, former head of HAS, now President of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary, who also acts as Vice President of the organization as elected in 2013.

The regular EASAC meeting and the 15th anniversary celebrations were hosted by the Norwegian Academy (DNVA). Keynote speaker for the official program open to the public was neuroscientist Edvard Moser who won a shared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the “human brain’s GPS” in 2014. Policy actors were also among the speakers of the event, including Johannes Klumpers, head of unit in Scientific Advice Mechanism, a unit established by the European Commission last year.

Representatives of the assembly, including Professor Pálinkás, also discussed collaboration among academic umbrella organizations by way of which the EASAC will participate in the new structure of the Commission. The currently forming academic consortium has a total budget of EUR 6 million available from funds under the Horizon 2020 programme to develop relevant, high-quality scientific analyses for policy-makers in the next four years.

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