Most EUROHARP Steering Committee (SC) members were part of the 'HARP Group', which developed the nine HARP Guidelines for quantifying point and diffuse losses of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from land to water bodies (HARP Guidelines). The development of these HARP guidelines and the interest for further work on the 'diffuse losses' part of the quantification within e.g. the EC and OSPAR provided the necessary impetus for the EUROHARP SC members to develop jointly the EUROHARP project proposal during 2000.

The following five institutes (and their representatives) constitute the Euroharp Steering Committee:

 
The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)
  - Stig A. Borgvang
  co-ordinates the whole project
  - John Rune Selvik
EC-Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy
  leader for Work Package 2
  - Faycal Bouraoui
Alterra, Green World Research in the Netherlands
  leader for Work Package 3 
  - Oscar Schoumans
ADAS Consulting Ltd. In the United Kingdom
  leader for Work Package 4 
  - Martyn Silgram
The Danish National Environmental Research Institute (NERI)
   - Brian Kronvang
  leader for Work Package 5 
  - Lars M. Svendsen
The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)
  - Nils Vagstad
  leader for Work Package 6