Assurance Working Group terms of reference
Published 25 June 2026
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1. Terms of Reference
The terms of reference were refreshed in January 2024. The Advisory Committee for Social Science (ACSS) Assurance Working Group supports the quality of Food Standards Agency (FSA) science by:
1. Reviewing new social science projects via the gateway process
2. Supporting the FSA social science team review approaches to:
- reaching vulnerable consumer groups in research
- engagement with academic community.
3. Contribute to shorter term ad hoc requests to support continuing improvement.
2. About
The overall aim of the ACSS assurance working group is to explore how best to facilitate assurance of the quality, value and impact of social science in the FSA. Last year, the group have completed substantive work developing a ‘good science’ quality assurance toolkit with University College London (UCL). The toolkit will support the commissioning of high-quality research across FSA sciences and can be accessed below. Working group members continue to be key contributors to the Social Science Gateway Process, and as such review the research questions and methodology of all new social science projects.