PLANNING TRANSFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY UNIT
CLARIFICATION N°1
Call reference: CONTEST/EFSA/PTT/2016/01
Call title: Design of a mobile application prototype
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Question 1: Who are the current users of the register of questions?
Answer: Please check “Annex 1 – Register Of Questions User Guide” section 3
“Standard Workflow”, where there is a link to the EFSA website “Working practices” that
could be useful to read. Please also check “Annex 3 –EFSA Strategy 2020” Table 1 “Who
we work with” to get a broader overview of the actors interacting with EFSA.
The register of question is publicly available, it contains information on questions asked
to EFSA by the EU regulatory authorities on food and feed safety issues within EFSA's
remit. Typical users of the register of questions are: the applicants (industry) who may
access the ROQ to check the status of their applications (a particular type of Question),
the Member States and the European Commission to check the status of EFSA’s work on
a certain topic. Private Citizens, journalists, non-governmental organisations also use the
register of questions.
A backend interface of the Register of Question is used by internal EFSA staff to keep the
public visible data updated. The backend interface has also the capability to generate
reports.
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Question 2: Can you describe some typical "user journeys"? By user journey, we mean
what is the need that the current users are trying to satisfy, what they search for, what
they obtain, how they use the results.
Answer: Please refer to sections 3 and 4 of “Annex 1 – Register Of Questions User
Guide” to have an overview of the standard Risk Assessment process and a complete
description of the usage of the register of questions.
This video could also be useful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXk0F0p3u1w&list=PLGDvgn1aAEEYFeahclGs7KEo9lzB9_w2k
Please find below some concrete examples of user journeys which are meant to clarify
the usage of register of questions and shouldn’t be taken as product specifications for
the mobile app:
Example 1
Mario Rossi works for the NewFood Corporation, a little enterprise in the field of feed
additives. NewFood has just developed a new revolutionary natural dye. Mario is the
contact point for its enterprise; he prepared the application dossier according to the
relevant legal framework and sent it to the European Commission. The European
Commission issued a Mandate letter and forwarded the application dossier to EFSA to
perform the Risk Assessment process. Mario is accessing the register of question
regularly to check the status of the application. He knows the question number
associated with its dossier.
European Food Safety Authority • Via Carlo Magno 1A • 43126 Parma • ITALY
Tel. +39 0521 036 111 • Fax +39 0521 036 110 • www.efsa.europa.eu
Mario accesses the register of questions and chooses the Question Tab from the
main menu
He inserts in the “keywords” field the question number.
He performs the search by pressing the “search” button
The list of questions is displayed in the screen, it contains Mario’s question which is
still “under consideration”
He enters into the question details page by clicking on the “Question Number” link
to see the details of its application. (Section 4.1.1 in Annex 1)
From the question details page he accesses the mandate details page by clicking
on the “Mandate Number” link (see figure below)
From the Mandate Details page he can see the mandate letter (a document) that
EFSA received from the Member State.
Example 2
John Smith works for the European Commission, every month he has to provide his boss
with a report displaying how many questions are in process versus how many questions
have been adopted during the last month.
John accesses the register of questions and chooses the Question Tab from the
main menu
He chooses the value “in progress” from the “Status Filter” dropdown
He performs the search by pressing the “search button”
The list of questions in progress is shown, he takes note of the number of results
(1223 Questions) shown
John presses the clear button to start another search;
He chooses “Adoption Date” from the “Date Filter” field
He inserts “01/04/2016” and “30/04/2016” in the “From Date” and “To Date” fields
He performs the search by pressing the “search” button
The list of questions adopted during last month is shown, and John takes notes of
the number of results (93 Questions)
Example 3
Mr Dupont is a French citizen who takes 3 coffees a day, he would like to check the
studies and the conclusions EFSA gave about “Caffeine”
Mr Dupont accesses the register of question and chose the Question Tab from the
main menu
He inserts “caffeine” in the “keywords” field.
He inserts “Finished” in the “Status” field.
Mr Dupont presses the “search” button.
He sees the list of questions in status finished linked to the assessment of
“Caffeine”.
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He can access the output documents in the website by clicking the “view..” link
under the status column. (Section 4.1.3 of Annex 1)
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Question 3: The register of questions doesn't contain "questions" by the common
meaning of the word "question". How would you describe what a question represents?
for example, take question EFSA-Q-2016-00305. There is a short description in
subject/subarea, but no question documents attached. How would you describe what
EFSA-Q-2016-00305 is?
Answer: Please refer to “Annex 1 – Register Of Questions User Guide” section 3
“Standard Workflow”, where there is a description of what a Mandate and a Question
are: “The workflow begins with a mandate (from the Commission or member state or an
internal mandate). It is defined by an official letter. The mandate contains the reference
to the questions that EFSA must reply to. Then there is question which is an EFSA
internal entity, a task that is part of the mandate. If several Panel/Units work on the
same mandate then at least one question will be created for each Panel/Unit; a single
question may not be related to more than one Panel/Unit.”
When EFSA receives a mandate, EFSA creates a question or a set of questions and
assigns them to its units to perform and keep track of the risk assessment process linked
to that mandate. A Question is a consequence of a Mandate, it is a request for
performing a task. An output is the outcome of one or more questions. EFSA-Q-201600305 is currently a question (today is 30/05/2016) “under consideration” (see the
status field), this means it has not yet been accepted by EFSA. Typically at this stage the
main documents are linked to the Mandate. In order to get them see section 4.1.2 of
Annex 1 or click on the mandate number link (as shown in the below figure).
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Question 4: What are "clockstopped events"?
Answer: Please refer to “Annex 1 – Register Of Questions User Guide” section 3
“Standard Workflow”, where there is a link to the EFSA website “Working practices”.
During the assessment: “For company applications EFSA may request more data directly
from the applicant - in which case the clock is stopped on the regulatory timetable until
this is supplied.”
Please refer also to “Annex 1 – Register Of Questions User Guide” section 6.1 for the list
of the status a Question may assume: “The Additional data request status means that
work has temporarily stopped because EFSA is waiting for additional information from an
external source.”
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Depending on the Food Sector Area (and on the legal framework behind each food sector
area), EFSA may have a legal or negotiated deadline for completing the risk assessment
cycle. During the risk assessment EFSA may generate clock-stopped-events in case the
risk assessment process has to be stopped. These events will “stop the clock” and
postpone the deadline date of the same amount of days the clock remained stopped. The
clock-stopped-events may be issued if EFSA needs additional data in order to properly
perform the risk assessment.
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Question 5: Is the data only available through the CSV downloads as shown on the
manual, or would it be possible to download them in bulk somewhere, or get a DVD with
the whole of it?
Answer: Please refer to the “Rules of Contest” section 5: “EFSA is developing software
services (WebServices and REST services) that will allow users to retrieve the same
information available in the Register of Questions user interfaces.”
As the above mentioned services are not yet in place you could simulate a similar
interaction and mock any missing services. CSV download is the only way to extract the
data from RAW in a “bulk way”. There are no other bulk download. In shaping your idea
you can assume that a bulk download will be in place if you need it.
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Question 6: Further to Q5, please comment on the absence of a link between questions
and question documents in the CSV files: there is no apparent way to download links to
the question comments.
Answer: Please refer to the “Rules of Contest” section 5: “EFSA is developing software
services (WebServices and REST services) that will allow users to retrieve the same
information available in the Register of Questions user interfaces.”
As the above mentioned services are not yet in place you could simulate a similar
interaction and mock any missing services. Currently the CSV export does not contain
the documents linked with the question and the comments. At the current stage you
could just simulate an updated service, for example by adding the columns in the CSV
file and fill them with “test” data.
The name of responsible Authorizing officer or by him/her duly authorized EFSA staff
member: Cesare Mazza (signed)
Date: 06/06/2016
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