Dr Eva Thomann awarded grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation

The project, led by Professor Fritz Sager, will review and analyse Swiss agriculture, food processing, safety and distribution, and public health policies, identify synergies and potential conflicts between those policy fields and use the evidence and recommendations to develop strategies for their successful implementation and to formulate concrete, internationally compatible policy suggestions.

Dr Thomann is joining the team as an external expert. Her areas of expertise include food safety regulation, the hybridisation of food governance, policy implementation in the EU, policy instruments, compliance, and behavioural public policy. Her current work focuses, amongst others, on how EU member states “customise” EU food safety policies to domestic contexts (Thomann forthcoming) and on the transnational and national public and private governance of food safety (Thomann 2017).

Speaking after receiving news of the award, Dr Thomann said: “I am thrilled to be part of this exciting project that will help both researchers and policymakers understand better how food policies can be designed and effectively implemented in an integrated, joined-up approach. The project should also generate interesting insights for the UK as Switzerland needs to navigate a highly internationalised policy environment and ensure equivalence with EU food policies in order to participate in the single market.”