Support to the re-evaluation of approved food additives under Regulation (EU) No 257/2010

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) call EUBA-EFSA seeks competent organisations designated by Member States to provide scientific and technical support for the re-evaluation and follow-up assessment of already authorised food additives under Regulation (EU) No 257/2010, with tasks including drafting calls for data, data compilation, literature searches, systematic-review screening and weight-of-evidence work. The call uses Framework Partnership Agreements (mono-beneficiary, up to three FPAs) and Specific Agreements with financing not linked to costs; the total indicative envelope is €300,000 and deliverables are paid as fixed sums. Only single Article 36 competent organisations listed by Member States may apply and subcontracting or consortia are not permitted. Applications must be submitted electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal by 28 January 2027, 17:00 Brussels time, following the published call documents and templates.

Call at a glance

Essential facts

Call for proposals EUBA-EFSA to provide scientific and technical assistance to EFSA for preparatory work leading to scientific opinions on the safety re-evaluation or follow-up assessment of already authorised food additives under Regulation (EU) No 257/2010.

Apply via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Full call documents, draft FPA and draft Specific Agreement set out eligibility, award criteria, templates and detailed deliverables and budgets for low/medium/high complexity tasks 1.

Footnotes

1. 1Call documentation and templates are published on the Funding & Tenders Portal and EFSA website (call reference EUBA-EFSA). See the call dossier for the Art.36 competent organisations list, award criteria, timelines and draft agreements: EFSA call documents.

Basic call information

Budget, duration and contracting modalities

Who can apply and eligibility

Only competent organisations designated by Member States and listed by EFSA pursuant to Article 36 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002 and Commission Regulation (EC) 2230/2004 are eligible to apply. Applicants must verify inclusion on the Article 36 list prior to submission; the list is maintained and published by EFSA. Proposals must be submitted by a single eligible organisation; consortia, affiliated multi-partner submissions and subcontractor-led proposals that seek to be beneficiaries are not allowed. Sub-contracting as a contractual implementation modality is explicitly forbidden under this call. Applicants must sign and upload required administrative templates including Administrative Declaration, Declaration on honour on exclusion criteria and Declaration on honour on selection criteria, and provide selection and award templates as requested in the call documents.

Tasks, scope of work and expected outputs

EFSA seeks scientific and technical assistance for preparatory activities in the re-evaluation and follow-up assessment workflow for food additives. The work requested maps to specific Work Packages and deliverables and may be requested in part or in full under specific agreements.

A non-exhaustive list of food additives that may be covered by specific agreements is provided in the call documentation (approximately 86 Q-numbers remaining, estimated to yield about 20 scientific opinions). Examples include sweeteners (sorbitol, mannitol, isomalt, maltitol, lactitol, xylitol) and multiple organic acids, salts, processing aids and other additives (e.g. citric acid E330, calcium disodium EDTA E385, various carbonates, hydroxides, triethyl citrate E1505, glyceryl diacetate E1517 and glyceryl triacetate E1518).

Evaluation, award and ranking

Grant form, payment and pricing

Legal, administrative and operational conditions

Applicants must accept the published draft Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) and draft Model Specific Agreement; any comments on draft agreements must be raised by clarification deadline so EFSA can publish replies. Submitting organisations must comply with exclusion criteria and selection checks (including declarations on honour). Subcontracting is not allowed. Implementation contracts (procurement) must follow public procurement rules when applicable. Beneficiaries retain ownership of results but EFSA is granted royalty-free, non-exclusive and irrevocable rights to use non-sensitive materials, deliverables and outputs for policy, dissemination and communication purposes. Sensitive information will be handled under confidentiality rules; classified information requires specific handling.

Application process and templates

Application is a single-stage process through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Applicants must be registered in the Participant Register and have a valid PIC. Required submission documents include: the Call for proposals application forms (Part A and Part B), Annex 2 Administrative Declaration, Annex 3 Declaration on honour on exclusion criteria, Annex 4 Declaration on honour on selection criteria, Annex 5 Selection criteria template (including CVs), Annex 6 Award criteria template. The draft FPA and draft Specific Agreement are provided with the call and must be consulted and accepted if selected. EFSA strongly recommends using EU CV format for team members. All supporting documents must be uploaded in the relevant Part B fields as single PDF where requested.

Assessment stages, timeline and success metrics

Eligible applicant types

Funding type and nature of support

Selection and award templates and application structure

The call publishes templates and annexes to be completed and uploaded with the proposal. Required annexes and templates available in the Portal Submission Service include: Annex 2 Administrative Declaration; Annex 3 Declaration on honour on exclusion criteria; Annex 4 Declaration on honour on selection criteria; Annex 5 Selection criteria template detailing organisational experience, team composition and CVs; Annex 6 Award criteria template where applicants present the methodology for calls for data, literature reviews/systematic-review processes, and quality control/risk management. Applicants should follow the Part A and Part B forms in the Portal and upload all templates in the Part B and Annexes section as single PDFs where requested. If using AI in preparing the proposal or in proposed methodology, applicants must disclose purpose, stage of use, added value, risk mitigation and human oversight in the award criteria template and methodology description.

Required evidence and documentation (summary)

Risks, governance and conflict of interest

Conflicts of interest must be declared and managed. Individual Declarations of Interests (DoIs) for project team members with influence over scientific outputs will be requested at award stage and before signature of Specific Agreements. EFSA will screen DoIs against its Independence Policy and competing interest management rules. Applicants must include a risk mitigation and quality assurance plan in their methodology (award criterion 3).

For help related to this call, contact EFSAProcurement@efsa.europa.eu. Applicants are advised to read the full Call for Proposals, the Draft Framework Partnership Agreement and the Draft Specific Agreement and other annexes published with the call before preparing submissions. The call documents include detailed procedures on evaluation, eligibility, exclusion, selection and award criteria, templates and an indicative procedure timetable. All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual and Portal Terms and Conditions.

This opportunity targets organisations able to deliver high-quality literature searches, systematic-review screening and synthesis, data compilation from industry and other data providers, confidentiality handling, and structured delivery of outputs supporting EFSA scientific opinion drafting on the safety re-evaluation of authorised food additives under Regulation (EU) No 257/2010. The contract model is a Framework Partnership Agreement awarding Specific Agreements in a cascade to ranked applicants, with pre-defined lump-sum payments per deliverable depending on complexity. All deliverables are expected in English and EFSA retains ownership and rights to use deliverables for policy and communication purposes, subject to confidentiality protections for sensitive information.

Applicants should consult the call documents and annexes available on the Funding & Tenders Portal and EFSA’s website for full and binding details, including the complete list of food additives and EFSA Q-numbers to be re-evaluated, the detailed draft legal documents (Draft Framework Partnership Agreement and Draft Specific Agreement) and templates for declarations and award/selection criteria. The Draft Call for Proposals and Guide for Applicants contain procedural details, deliverable descriptions, unit prices by complexity and full contractual terms. The overall envelope for the call is €300,000 and EFSA intends to sign up to three FPAs with single applicants based on ranking and the cascade approach 1.

Footnotes

1. 1Detailed call documentation, draft FPA, draft Specific Agreement and annexes are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal topic page and EFSA’s website. See the official topic page: ec.europa.eu and the call documents published with the topic.

Support to the re-evaluation of approved food additives under Regulation (EU) No 257/2010

Opportunity summary

This is an EFSA call for proposals supporting the scientific re-evaluation and follow-up assessment of food additives that are already authorised in the European Union under Regulation (EU) No 257/2010. The work is intended to contribute to the preparation of EFSA scientific opinions on the safety of these additives.

The opportunity is identified as EUBA-EFSA. The official EFSA listing records publication on 22 October 2026, a deadline of 28 January 2027, and an ongoing status.1 The authoritative Funding and Tenders Portal page is available at EU Funding and Tenders Portal opportunity.

Purpose and scope

The purpose is to obtain technical and scientific support from competent organisations for activities that feed into EFSA’s assessment of approved food additives. The supported work may relate to the preparation, analysis, review, organisation or follow-up of scientific material required for EFSA opinions, subject to the detailed specifications in the official call documentation.

The scope concerns food additives that have already been authorised and are subject to re-evaluation or follow-up assessment under Regulation (EU) No 257/2010. This is therefore not primarily a call for the development of new food additives, commercial product innovation, or general food safety research.

Eligibility

Only competent organisations designated by Member States are eligible to apply. The designation requirement is a central eligibility condition and means that an organisation should not assume that it can apply solely because it has relevant scientific, regulatory or laboratory expertise.

Potential applicants should verify that their organisation has been formally designated or otherwise recognised through the applicable Member State process before preparing an application. The available opportunity summary does not identify a broader category of eligible entities such as universities, public research organisations, private companies, laboratories or consortia unless they satisfy the competent organisation and Member State designation conditions.

Eligible applicant profile

A potentially suitable applicant would normally be an organisation with demonstrable competence in one or more areas relevant to food additive safety assessment, such as toxicology, exposure assessment, dietary intake, chemistry, risk assessment, scientific data evaluation or regulatory food safety work.

The applicant should also be able to demonstrate the administrative, scientific and quality-management capacity needed to deliver work that can be used in EFSA’s scientific opinion process. These capabilities are indicative of the likely needs of the assignment and should be checked against the final call documents before submission.

Key opportunity parameters

The following information is identifiable from the available official opportunity summary.

Funding and implementation details

The available listing and supplied metadata do not state the total call budget, maximum award per applicant, applicable funding rate, eligible cost categories, pre-financing arrangements, payment schedule, project duration, or maximum number of proposals that may be selected. These parameters should be taken only from the official call conditions, application documents and model grant agreement published with the opportunity.

The opportunity should not be budgeted on the assumption of a particular reimbursement percentage or award amount. Applicants should first confirm whether the action is financed through a grant, a specific financial contribution, or another form of support administered by EFSA, and should then align the financial plan with the applicable cost and payment rules.

Known requirements and conditions

The core requirements identifiable from the opportunity are:

Expected technical contribution

Applicants should be prepared to explain how their organisation will contribute to a scientifically robust and transparent assessment. A strong application is likely to address the organisation’s technical expertise, access to qualified personnel, experience with food additive safety, data quality procedures, ability to meet deadlines, independence and management of potential conflicts of interest.

Depending on the detailed work programme, tasks could include reviewing existing scientific evidence, assessing toxicity or exposure information, identifying data gaps, evaluating study quality, preparing technical reports, supporting evidence integration, or responding to follow-up information requirements. These activities are illustrative and should not be treated as confirmed work packages until the official documents are reviewed.

Application preparation checklist

Important uncertainties

The public summary available for this analysis does not provide sufficient information to confirm the financial envelope, award methodology, duration, detailed deliverables, evaluation criteria, selection procedure, reporting requirements, consortium rules, subcontracting rules, intellectual property provisions or appeal arrangements.

These omissions should be treated as information requiring verification rather than as evidence that the conditions do not apply. The complete official call documentation should prevail over this summary if any difference exists.

Strategic assessment

This opportunity is highly specialised and is not a general funding scheme open to all food safety organisations. Its principal access barrier is institutional eligibility through Member State designation. Organisations that are not designated should consider whether they can participate through an eligible competent organisation only if the official call documents expressly permit such arrangements.

The strongest applications are likely to be those that demonstrate a direct connection between the applicant’s statutory or recognised competence and the scientific assessment of authorised food additives. Scientific credibility, independence, quality assurance and the ability to deliver evidence suitable for EFSA’s formal opinion process are likely to be more important than a broad or commercially oriented project concept.

Official source

The official EFSA call listing confirms the opportunity title and deadline.1 Applicants should use the official Funding and Tenders Portal record and its associated documents as the controlling source for all eligibility, financial, technical and procedural requirements.

[1] EFSA grants and calls listing