Issued on: 19 May 2025
Deadline: 30 June 2025
The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve as members of the second Technical Advisory Group on Per- and Poly-FluoroAlkyl Substances (PFAS) Assessment (TAG-PFAS-2). This “Call for experts” provides information about the advisory group in question, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the process of selection.
Background
Public health concern about human exposure to PFAS, including through drinking-water and food, is increasing and many PFAS share similar routes of human exposure and mechanisms of toxicity. A number of countries and authorities have published or proposed guidance values for PFAS in recent years that vary considerably, depending on the PFAS included, methodology used and a variety of other factors. There is a need to develop authoritative health-based values for key ingested PFAS, including for drinking water and as mixtures, that can be adopted and utilized by national and regional authorities.
WHO is finalizing a landscape review identifying key ingested PFAS and key health effects. In this phase of work (Phase 1), WHO is also preparing a generic methodology to systematically collect and evaluate PFAS evidence. This proposed work in this Call (Phase 2) builds upon Phase 1 findings. This work will ultimately inform derivation of health-based guidance values for PFAS, including consideration of mixtures risk assessment (Phase 3).
Functions of the TAG-PFAS-2
In its capacity as an advisory body to WHO, the TAG-PFAS-2 shall have the following functions:
- To advise WHO on the activities being conducted by WHO Contractors for systematic evidence collection and evaluation for key health effects for key ingested PFAS identified in Phase 1
- To advise WHO on the activities being conducted by WHO Contractors to develop PFAS groupings for mixtures risk assessment for the key ingested PFAS and their health effects
- To advise WHO on future work envisaged to establish health-based values
Operations of the TAG-PFAS-2
The TAG-PFAS-2 is expected to meet virtually and at least once in person at WHO headquarters in Geneva or another location, as determined by WHO. The working language of the group will be English.
Who can express interest?
The TAG-PFAS-2 will be multidisciplinary, with members who have a range of technical knowledge, skills and experience relevant to PFAS health effects, toxicology, epidemiology, occurrence in food and/or drinking water, systematic evidence collection and evaluation, and risk assessment. Approximately 12 members may be selected.
WHO welcomes expressions of interest from: experts who meet many or most of the following qualifications:
- Hold an advanced university degree(s) in a relevant field of study (e.g. toxicology, pharmacology, pathology, epidemiology, immunology, environmental sciences, biostatistics, public health);
- Scientific excellence evidenced by publications in peer-reviewed specialized journals, government publications or similar;
- Professional experience in one or more of the following technical areas:
- Risk assessment processes, in particular processes relevant for FAO/WHO JECFA, Codex, the GDWQ and other international assessments
- Protocols and best practices for systematic collection and synthesis of evidence on human health effects of exposure to chemicals, including chemicals with extensive data sets and complex mixtures, ideally PFAS, in water and food
- Methodologies to derive health-based values, considering mixture approaches (combined and cumulative exposure), including ideally PFAS
- Reviewing, evaluating, and extrapolating experimental, animal, and other biological data on toxic chemicals to humans, including identifying data gaps and areas for more in-depth assessment, including ideally for PFAS
- Evaluating chemicals as contaminants, including ideally PFAS
- Chemical identification, nomenclature and analytical chemistry, including ideally PFAS
- Monitoring and managing PFAS in drinking-water supplies
- Familiarity with WHO’s requirements for developing normative publications, including the Guidelines for drinking-water quality and other WHO normative and standard-setting products relating to chemicals
- Experience in contributing to scientific assessments at the national or international level;
- Ability to converse in and write documents in English;
- Ability to participate in virtual and in-person expert consultations and
- Ability to work with people from different cultural backgrounds as well as with scientists from various disciplines.
Submitting your expression of interest
To register your interest in being considered for the TAG-PFAS-2, please submit the following documents by midnight GMT 30 June 2025 to ipcsmail@who.int using the subject line “Expression of interest for the TAG-PFAS-2”:
- Explanation of your motivation to apply and how you satisfy the selection criteria. Please note that, if selected, membership will be in a personal capacity. Therefore, do not use the letterhead or other identification of your employer;
- Your curriculum vitae (including your nationality/ies) and
- A signed and completed Declaration of Interests (DOI) form for WHO Experts, available at https://www.who.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest.
Important information about the selection processes and conditions of appointment
Members of WHO advisory groups (AGs) must be free of any real, potential or apparent conflicts of interest. To this end, applicants are required to complete the WHO Declaration of Interests for WHO Experts, and the selection as a member of a AG is, amongst other things, dependent on WHO determining that there is no conflict of interest or that any identified conflicts could be appropriately managed (in addition to WHO’s evaluation of an applicant’s experience, expertise and motivation and other criteria).
All AG members will serve in their individual expert capacity and shall not represent any governments, any commercial industries or entities, any research, academic or civil society organizations, or any other bodies, entities, institutions or organizations. They are expected to fully comply with the Code of Conduct for WHO Experts (https://www.who.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest). AG members will be expected to sign and return a completed confidentiality undertaking prior to the beginning of the first meeting.
At any point during the selection process, telephone interviews may be scheduled between an applicant and the WHO Secretariat to enable WHO to ask questions relating to the applicant’s experience and expertise and/or to assess whether the applicant meets the criteria for membership in the relevant AG.
The selection of members of the AGs will be made by WHO in its sole discretion, taking into account the following (non-exclusive) criteria: relevant technical expertise; communication skills; and ability to work constructively with people from different cultural backgrounds and orientations. The selection of AG members will also take account of the need for diverse perspectives from different regions, especially from low and middle-income countries, and for gender balance.
If selected by WHO, proposed members will be sent an invitation letter and a Memorandum of Agreement. Appointment as a member of an AG will be subject to the proposed member returning to WHO the countersigned copy of these two documents.
WHO reserves the right to accept or reject any expression of interest, to annul the open call process and reject all expressions of interest at any time without incurring any liability to the affected applicant or applicants and without any obligation to inform the affected applicant or applicants of the grounds for WHO's action. WHO may also decide, at any time, not to proceed with the establishment of the AG, disband an existing TAG or modify the work of the AG.
WHO shall not in any way be obliged to reveal, or discuss with any applicant, how an expression of interest was assessed, or to provide any other information relating to the evaluation/selection process or to state the reasons for not choosing a member.
WHO may publish the names and a short biography of the selected individuals on the WHO internet.
AG members will not be remunerated for their services in relation to the AG or otherwise. Travel and accommodation expenses of AG members to participate in AG meetings will be covered by WHO in accordance with its applicable policies, rules and procedures.
The appointment will be limited in time as indicated in the letter of appointment.
If you have any questions about this “Call for experts”, please write to ipcsmail@who.int well before the applicable deadline.