Article 3 Selection criteria and composition of the scientific panel

Experts shall be appointed to the scientific panel following a call for expression of interest, based on selection criteria stipulated in that call.

For each term of office referred to in Article 4, the number of experts shall be determined by the Commission, in consultation with the European Artificial Intelligence Board (the ‘Board’), and set out in the call for expression of interest referred to in paragraph 1. The number of experts on the scientific panel shall in no case exceed 60.

1. multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary adequate and up-to-date scientific, technical, or sociotechnical expertise related to artificial intelligence, the impacts of artificial intelligence, or otherwise relevant to the effective enforcement of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, including expertise pertaining to applied sectors, fundamental rights and equality, as appropriate;

2. independence from any provider means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body that develops an AI system or a general-purpose AI model or that has an AI system or a general-purpose AI model developed and places it on the market or puts the AI system into service under its own name or trademark, whether for payment or free of charge; of the AI system means a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments; or general-purpose AI model means an AI model, including where such an AI model is trained with a large amount of data using self-supervision at scale, that displays significant generality and is capable of competently performing a wide range of distinct tasks regardless of the way the model is placed on the market and that can be integrated into a variety of downstream systems or applications, except AI models that are used for research, development or prototyping activities before they are placed on the market; as set out in point (b) of Article 68(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689;

3. impartiality and objectivity as set out in Article 68(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689;

4. an ability to carry out activities diligently, accurately and objectively.

The Commission shall ensure in the selection of experts that at least one and no more than three nationals from each Member State of the Union and each member of the European Free Trade Association which is a member of the European Economic Area is appointed as experts to the scientific panel, provided that there are applicants from that country who satisfy the criteria stipulated in the call and provided that a sufficiently comprehensive coverage of relevant areas of expertise can be achieved that way. Nationals from Member States of the Union and members of the European Free Trade Association which are members of the European Economic Area shall constitute at least four-fifths of the experts on the scientific panel.

The Commission shall ensure to the extent possible gender balance in the selection of experts. To that end, whenever the selection requires a decision between two equally qualified candidates, the Commission shall give preference to the underrepresented gender.

Experts who satisfy the criteria stipulated in the call, but who are not appointed to the scientific panel, shall be included in a reserve list of available experts (the ‘reserve list’), which shall be valid for the duration of the term of office of the panel referred to in Article 4.