Low-risk pesticides including biopesticides consisting of plant extracts, semiochemicals such as pheromones and allelochemicals, and microbial pesticides are gaining ground in the global market, where they have started to substitute synthetic pesticides. In addition, phages, protists, microbial consortia and double-stranded (ds)-RNA pesticides are emerging low-risk solutions that are expected to reach the market in coming […]
PRORISK is a European Training Network funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It creates a platform for training early-stage researchers in the field of advanced environmental risk assessment. Environmental risk assessment procedures are nowadays changing, incorporating for instance mechanistic, ecological, and socio-economic information. Consequently, risk assessments are becoming more comprehensive. […]
The European Commission has imposed a stringent regulatory scheme for pesticide authorisation, which includes an assessment of potential risks for aquatic organisms and terrestrial macro-organisms. However, the assessment of the toxicity of pesticides on soil microorganisms relies on a protocol that does not identify effects on key microbial functions and on microbial diversity. As acknowledged […]
The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project ‘Prioritisation and risk evaluation of medicines in the environment’ (PREMIER) aims to develop a centralised, user-friendly and transparent digital assessment system accessible for all relevant stakeholders such as regulatory agencies, pharmaceutical industry, water managers and environmental non-governmental organisations. Furthermore, PREMIER will explore the options to incorporate environment considerations earlier […]
Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) of medicines for human use can be released to the environment during the manufacturing process, following use by patients or when unused medicines are disposed of in an incorrect manner. As APIs are biologically active compounds, concerns have been raised about the potential effects of APIs in the environment on human […]
The ROUTES project aimed to evaluate new routes of sewage sludge treatment and management matching the needs of different wastewater origins and different digested sludge utilisations. Elimination of micropollutants was targeted for agricultural sludge application, and minimising the production volume for other sludge disposal routes. Research of ECT in sludge-soil interactions focussed on three aspects: […]
The strategic goal of EcoFINDERS is to provide the EC with tools to design and implement strategies for ensuring sustainable use of soils, including: (1) the characterisation of the biodiversity of European soils, (2) the determination of relations between soil biodiversity, soil functions and ecosystem services, and (3) the design of policy-relevant and cost-effective indicators […]
The project aims to narrow the gap between environmental research focusing on water (resources, water quality, pollution and biodiversity issues) sponsored by the European Union (EU) and European citizens. The project will communicate results and activities of environmental research with two specific target groups: teachers and students as primary target group, and the general public […]
OSIRIS (Optimized Strategies for Risk Assessment of Chemicals based on Intelligent Testing) develops integrated testing strategies (ITS) which can be used for the European Union regulation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) to significantly increase the use of non-testing information for risk assessment of industrial chemicals and regulatory decision making. This includes alternative […]
The overall objective of the research and training network KEYBIOEFFECTS was to provide young scientists with the skills and knowledge needed to assess the effects of pollution (with specific focus on key pollutants) on the biodiversity of European rivers and to transfer this knowledge to different stakeholder groups. Recognizing the importance of understanding cause-effect relationships […]
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