On February the 7th 2019 Ullrika Sahlin gave a seminar at the FRAM Centre for Future Chemical Risk Assessment and Management Strategies in Gothenburg.
Ullrika gave an snapshot of recent debates around the developments of management of uncertainty and evidence with a focus on scientific assessments. What standards for management of uncertainty are asked for today and in the future?
Risk analysis is a field which for a long time has been focusing on managing uncertainty. There are not only many sources to uncertainty, but also different types of uncertainty and ways to characterise them. Principles for risk analysis are useful for scientific assessments in general, especially when there is an aim to evaluate the impact of uncertainty due to lack of knowledge on the conclusions of an assessment. It can be to rely on empirical evidence as well as expert knowledge and data generated by models. Lately, the strengths in underlying evidence has become part of the characterisation of uncertainty. Managing uncertainty and evidence according to standards requires resources and experts on uncertainty. Who will provide these resources and where do these experts come from?