EFSA
Provides independent scientific advice on food-related risks to protect consumers and support EU food policy.
European Food Safety Authority is currently advertising 7 open positions on our EU Jobs Alert tracker. Every vacancy below is sourced from the official European Food Safety Authority careers portal, normalised into a consistent schema, and refreshed daily so you never miss a deadline.
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EFSA (the European Food Safety Authority) is the EU's scientific risk assessor for food and feed safety. From its Parma headquarters in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy it produces the scientific opinions that underpin EU decisions on what can be sold and eaten in the Union: pesticide approvals, food additives, novel foods including cell-cultured meat, contaminants in food, GMOs, animal health, plant health, and human nutrition. EFSA is not a regulator and does not authorise anything, its job is to produce the science; Commission DG SANTE and the member states take the risk-management decisions. For job-seekers it offers a science-led EU career in one of Italy's most agriculturally rich regions, with a workforce dominated by scientists and a working culture closer to a national food safety authority than to a regulatory body.
EFSA was established by Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of 28 January 2002 (the EU's General Food Law) which entered into force on 21 February 2002. The Regulation was the EU's response to the food safety crises of the late 1990s (BSE, dioxin in Belgian feed, foot-and-mouth disease) and built the institutional separation between risk assessment (EFSA) and risk management (Commission and member states) that is now standard practice in EU food law. The Transparency Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/1381), applicable from 27 March 2021, substantially reformed EFSA's procedures, introducing public access to studies submitted in support of regulated-product dossiers and stricter conflict-of-interest rules for scientific Panel members.
EFSA's core outputs are scientific opinions, scientific reports, statements, and guidance documents produced by its ten scientific Panels and its Scientific Committee. The Panels cover: food contact materials, enzymes, flavourings and processing aids (CEF); food additives and nutrient sources added to food (ANS); contaminants in the food chain (CONTAM); dietetic products, nutrition and allergies (NDA); biological hazards (BIOHAZ); animal health and welfare (AHAW); plant protection products and their residues (PPR); GMOs (GMO); plant health (PLH); feed additives or substances used in animal feed (FEEDAP); and the Scientific Committee for cross-cutting issues. Each Panel is composed of independent academic experts appointed for renewable terms.
EFSA's opinions feed directly into Commission decisions under specific regulations: pesticide active-substance approvals under Regulation (EC) 1107/2009; food additive authorisations under Regulation (EC) 1333/2008; novel food authorisations under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 (including cell-cultured meat); GMO authorisations under Regulation (EC) 1829/2003; and many others. The Commission typically follows the scientific opinion but the legal decision is the Commission's, taken in committee procedure with the member states.
EFSA is led by an Executive Director (Bernhard Url from 2014 until 2024, with Marta Hugas serving in the interim and a new Executive Director appointed thereafter) and a Management Board of 14 members including representatives of the Commission, the European Parliament, and consumer and food-chain stakeholders. The agency is structured into scientific departments aligned with the Panels (Risk Assessment Production; Assessment and Methodological Support; Risk Communication and Information Flow; Engagement and Cooperation; Corporate Services covering HR, finance, ICT, legal).
The scientific Panels themselves are not EFSA staff, they are external experts appointed for renewable terms, supported by EFSA staff who handle the secretariat, data extraction, evidence synthesis, and drafting work. Each Panel meets 8 to 12 times per year in Parma. The Panel structure is the agency's most distinctive feature and the main reason most EFSA staff are themselves scientists, they need to be able to work with Panel members as scientific peers.
Geographically the agency is concentrated in Parma at via Carlo Magno in the south of the city, with no field offices. The choice of Parma in 2002 was a political compromise; Parma's reputation as Italy's food capital (Parmigiano Reggiano, prosciutto di Parma, Barilla) made it symbolically apt.
EFSA hiring is dominated by scientific recruitment. AD5 to AD9 scientific officer posts cover all Panel areas, with the highest hiring volume in pesticides, contaminants, novel foods (including cell-cultured products), GMOs, and food additives. The typical AD7 scientific officer profile is a PhD in a relevant discipline (toxicology, food science, animal science, plant science, microbiology, statistics) plus 5 to 10 years of post-doctoral or applied experience at a national food safety authority, a research institute, or industry. AD5 entry posts are open to candidates with a strong master's and limited postdoctoral experience.
A substantial stream of AD posts opens in methodology (Bayesian inference, dose-response modelling, exposure assessment, systematic review methodology, big data and AI in risk assessment). EFSA has invested heavily in OpenEFSA (the IT platform supporting open science and public access to studies) and recruits ICT specialists at AD5 to AD9 and FG IV for that workstream. Corporate services (HR, finance, communications) recruit at FG II to FG IV via CAST Permanent.
The agency runs a structured traineeship and a National Expert Programme (similar to SNE) drawing on serving national food safety officers. The Transparency Regulation triggered substantial 2021 to 2024 hiring around dossier handling, data extraction, and transparency procedures.
Parma has a correction coefficient of 99.6 under Article 64 of the Staff Regulations, effectively at parity with Brussels. EFSA salaries therefore equal the standard EU grid for practical purposes. An AD5 step 1 grosses €6,153 monthly basic; an AD7 step 1 €7,876; an AD9 step 1 €10,083. With the standard 16% expatriation allowance (where applicable, most EFSA staff qualify), a household allowance for a married hire (~€220 plus 2% of basic), and a dependent-child allowance per child (~€510), an AD7 expatriate with one child lands around €9,500 to €10,500 gross monthly before tax.
Parma's cost of living is materially below Brussels, housing, restaurants, and daily expenses are all cheaper. A two-bedroom apartment in central Parma runs €700 to €1,100 monthly; the equivalent in Brussels Etterbeek/Ixelles is closer to €1,400 to €1,800. The standard expatriation, household, and child allowances are not modified by the coefficient, so expatriate purchasing power in Parma is substantially better than in Brussels for staff with families. The European School of Parma serves EFSA staff with the education allowance covering tuition. For staff without an Italian-speaking spouse the social integration is a real consideration, Parma is welcoming but Italian-speaking, and the local Anglophone EU bubble is smaller than in Brussels or Luxembourg. Use the [salary calculator](/guide/salary-calculator/) to model an AD7 take-home for Parma.
English is the working language across EFSA. Most scientific opinions, Panel meetings, and internal documents are in English. Italian is useful for daily life in Parma but not required for the job, though local administrative interactions are largely in Italian. Knowledge of a second EU language is the regulatory minimum for AD and FG posts. For scientific officers handling dossiers from particular member states, additional EU languages (French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Polish) are valuable.
Security clearance is not generally required at EFSA. Staff handling commercially confidential business information in regulated-product dossiers are subject to strict confidentiality undertakings and to the Transparency Regulation's rules on what is publishable. The Transparency Regulation reform substantially changed how EFSA staff handle dossier data and triggered training and procedure changes across the agency.
Competition profiles favour candidates with a PhD or strong master's in a relevant scientific discipline (toxicology, food science, veterinary science, agronomy, food microbiology, biostatistics, environmental sciences, nutrition) plus prior risk-assessment experience at a national food safety authority (Anses in France, BfR in Germany, RIVM in the Netherlands, FSAI in Ireland, AECOSAN in Spain, ISS in Italy, etc.), at a research institute, or in industry. Methodology and IT posts have separate profile requirements.
EFSA recruits via three routes. Direct temporary agent recruitment, the main channel. Vacancy notices are published on efsa.europa.eu/en/engage/careers and circulated via the EU Careers portal. Applications are submitted through the agency's online system with CV (Europass or equivalent), motivation letter, language self-assessment, and supporting documents. Shortlisted candidates undergo a written test (typically a scientific case study or evidence synthesis exercise tailored to the post), a structured interview, and reference checks. The process from notice to offer typically takes 3 to 5 months.
Contract agent via CAST Permanent, candidates register on the EU Careers portal in the relevant FG profile (Project/Programme Management, Communications, ICT, Finance, Administrative Support, Scientific support where applicable) and respond to specific EFSA notices. CA posts cover support functions and some junior scientific roles. Initial contracts are 3 years, renewable to 5, with possibility of indefinite contracts after that.
Seconded national experts, serving officials from national food safety authorities apply through their national point of contact for 2 to 4 year deployments. The SNE route is structurally important to EFSA given its dependence on national-authority expertise; many AD posts are filled from the SNE pool at the end of secondment. EFSA's traineeship programme (paid 6 to 12 month placements) is advertised separately and is a realistic entry route for early-career scientists with a PhD or strong master's.
7 positions found
Notice of call for expressions of interestEOI/EFSA/COM/2026/01Expert advice in the area of Communication, Digital and Social Science (Operational...
Notice of Call for Expressions of Interest Scientific and Technical Support in the area of the assessment of Animal Health and Animal Welfare,...
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EFSA GUEST PROGRAMME 2026/2027EFSA/NS/GP/2026 The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), based in Parma, Italy is opening positions for Guest...