Evotec SE

Evotec's Audit & Compliance Committee, comprising three members, supports the Supervisory Board in independently monitoring the Company's financial reporting activities and in auditing reports. In particular, the Audit & Compliance Committee reviews the Company's accounting processes, the effectiveness of the internal control system and the audit of the financial statements. In addition, it discusses the quarterly and half-year reports with the Management Board as well as its risk management and IT security systems as well as the Company's compliance management systems. Within the scope of the audit of the financial statements commissioned by the Supervisory Board, the Audit & Compliance Committee also reviews possible transactions with related parties. Moreover, the Audit & Compliance Committee also discusses certain steps and procedures of the audit with the appointed auditing firm, including the auditors' independence, quality, the additional services rendered by the auditor, the issuing of the audit mandate to the auditing firm, the determination of auditing focal points, the fee agreement and compliance issues. The Audit & Compliance Committee exchanges information regularly with the auditor as part of the preparation and implementation of the audit without the Management Board.

The structural integration of our sustainability management is centred around the department of Global ESG created in 2020. This position reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).The Supervisory Board implemented a dedicated sub-committee for ESG topics in 2022. The latter is responsible for ESG oversight and addresses ESG impacts, risks and opportunities and links to the ESG topics. For the most part of 2024, it was composed of three Supervisory Board members and is led by its Chair Dr Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort. In addition, the CEO is present at the meetings, the CPO and the Head of Global IR & ESG at Evotec are regular participants in the committee's meetings, which are held in conjunction with Supervisory Board meetings. The Chair of the ESG Committee and the Head of Global Investor Relations (IR) & ESG are in regular contact between meetings, twice a month. The committee regularly reports at the Supervisory Board meetings about recent meetings and discussions. [...] The Supervisory Board approves the ESG strategy, as well as the milestones defined by the Management Board. Due to the late completion of the Impact and Materiality assessment in 2024, responsibilities for impacts, risks and opportunities are not yet reflected in our terms of reference, board mandates and other related policies. [...] The Head of Global IR & ESG is supported in his function by a team of ESG Coordinators. The team consists of three permanent positions. The ESG department is in direct contact with both the Management and the Supervisory Board. It is entitled to direct, advise and support functional areas on questions of target setting and key performance indicator (KPI) definition relating to material impacts, risks and opportunities (IRO). Based on its expertise, the ESG team proposes IRO-related targets that are suitable components of the short-term incentive (STI) plan. The targets are presented by the Head of ESG to the members of the ESG Committee. From here they are put forward to the Supervisory Board, which decides on the targets to be set at the last meeting of the year in December. During the reference year, the Head of ESG reports regularly to the ESG Committee about the progress related to each ESG-related target of the science based target initiative (SBTI) plan.

Describe the process(es) your organization has in place to ensure that your external engagement activities are consistent with your climate commitments and/or climate transition plan?[…]As part of our external engagement on climate commitment, we submitted our letter of intent to set a science-based target which was accepted by the SBTi in 2020. We therefore developed our near-term emissions reduction targets following the SBTi criteria. We then submitted the targets to the SBTi for official review and validation in 2023 and have also communicated this to all our stakeholders. We believe that engaging with the SBTi will serve as an external control to be consistent with our commitment. It will provide a greater motivation to report our emissions regularly and track the progress made with external validation.

Does your organization have a public commitment or position statement to conduct your engagement activities in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement?[…]Yes