BIOplasticMENT

Biodegradation and interaction of BIOplastic residues with the environMENT

The BIOplasticMENT project will address the emerging issues related to the presence of bioMNPLs in the environment. It will evaluate the main exposure routes for the aquatic organism to respond to the multiple shortcomings and different innovative strategies for the decontamination of waters will be tested.

Start Date: 01/09/2023 – End Date: 31/08/2025

Project Leader: Marta Llorca Casamayor

Researchers: Marinella Farré Urgell

Support: Xavier Borrell Díaz , Arianna Bautista Gea (Ari) , Clara Serrano Lorigados

Funding: National Project

TwinSol-CECs

Twinning for Enhancing the Scientific Excellence of Faculty of Technology novi sad for innovative solutions to protect environmental resources from contaminants of emerging concern

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) include numerous chemicals that are not subjected to routine monitoring or emission control, but pose a global threat due to potential negative impact on the environment and human health. Surveillance of CECs and improvement of removal technologies are aligned with the European Green Deal commitment to become climate-neutral by 2050 and support a toxic free environment. The EU-funded TwiNSol-CECs project enhances the capacity of the Faculty of Technology Novi Sad, Serbia, in CEC research through twinning with two of the leading western European research institutions in this area.
Surveillance of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) has important role in protection of both humans and the environmental resources, which is a goal in compliance to the European Green Deal (EGD) commitment for transition of EU to zero-pollution, toxic free environment. However, there is a significant gap between countries and regions in terms of the scientific and innovative capacities needed to tackle the challenge that CECs in the environmental compartments present.
Overall objective of TwiNSol-CECs is to raise scientific and innovation excellence of the Faculty of Technology Novi Sad (TFNS), Serbia, in various aspects of the CECs research, integrated in broader EU networks of excellence, and contributing to national and regional scientific and economic growth and well-being. Specific TwiNSol-CECs objectives are: 1. Stepping up the excellence of the TFNS scientific capacity and resources in field of the wide-range CECs’ surveillance and innovative removal technologies, contributing to the stronger R&I system in Serbia and WBs integrated in the EU networks of excellence, 2. Intensification of strategic networking activities of TFNS with 2 top-class leading research institutions at EU level: Spanish National Research Council, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (CSIC), Spain, and NOVA University Lisbon, NOVA School of Science and Technology (UNL), Portugal, 3. Raising reputation, research profile and attractiveness of TFNS and its staff, 4. Strengthening the research management and administration skills of TFNS, and 5. Improving the TFNS creativity in new R&I approaches for the CECs’ wide range surveillance and removal with increasing mobility of qualified scientists.
The project represents a coherent set of knowledge-, skills-, experience-, and awareness- raising activities, dissemination, communication, networking, coordination, etc. for successful achieving of the project objectives.

Funded by the European Union. Grant agreement ID: 101059867
Coordinator: TFNS

Start Date: 01/08/2022 – End Date: 31/07/2025

Project Leader: Marinella Farré Urgell

Researchers: Marta Llorca Casamayor , Sandra Pérez Solsona , Olga Gómez Navarro , Nicola Montemurro

Funding: European Project

http://twinsol-cecs.com/

PARC

Partnership for the Assessment of Risk from Chemicals

The European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (#EU_PARC) aims to advance research, share knowledge, and improve skills in chemical risk assessment. By doing so, it will help support the European Union's Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, paving the way for the "zero pollution" ambition announced in the European Green Deal.

Main objectives:
- Develop the scientific skills needed to address current and future challenges in chemical safety
- Provide new data, methods, and innovative tools to those responsible for assessing and managing the risks of chemical exposure
- Strengthen the networks which bring together actors specialised in the different scientific fields contributing to risk assessment

PARC represents a campaign of unprecedented scale, since it brings together 200 partners from 28 countries, as well as three EU agencies (the European Environment Agency – EEA, the European Chemicals Agency – ECHA, and the European Food Safety Authority – EFSA). The partnership encompasses all aspects of chemical risk assessment, aiming in particular to: better anticipate emerging risks, better account for combined risks, and underpin the concrete implementation of new orientations in European public policies to safeguard the health and the environment in response to important issues for health, the ecology and citizens' expectations.

The Spanish coordination was assigned to the IDAEA's Geochemistry and Pollution group (Joan Grimalt) and the Instituto Carlos III.

HORIZON-HLTH-2021-ENVHLTH-03: 101057014

Start Date: 01/05/2022 – End Date: 30/04/2029

Project Leader: Joan Grimalt Obrador

Researchers: Sandra Pérez Solsona , Marinella Farré Urgell , Marta Llorca Casamayor , Nicola Montemurro , Mercè Garí de Barbarà

Support: Arianna Bautista Gea (Ari) , Julen Segura Abarrategui

Funding: European Project

https://www.eu-parc.eu/

PROMISCES

Preventing Recalcitrant Organic Mobile Industrial chemicalS for Circular Economy in the Soil-sediment-water system

PROMISCES will identify how industrial pollution prevents the deployment of the circular economy in the EU and which strategies help overcome key bottlenecks to deliver the ambitions of the European Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan. Funded as an H2020 project, PROMISCES considers specific circular economy routes including (i) semi-closed water cycles for drinking water supply at urban and catchment scale; (ii) wastewater reuse for irrigation in agriculture; (iii) nutrient recovery from sewage sludge; (iv) material recovery from dredged sediment and (v) land remediation for safe reuse in urban areas.

Start Date: 01/11/2021 – End Date: 30/04/2025

Project Leader: Miren López de Alda Villaizán , Víctor Matamoros Mercadal

Researchers: Rocío Inés Bonansea , Marinella Farré Urgell , Marta Llorca Casamayor

Support: Alicia Cano López , Pol Martín Chulio , Dana Pierina Orlando Véliz

Funding: European Project

https://promisces.eu/

FOREWARN

Development a smart forewarning system to assess the occurrence, fate and behaviour of contaminants of emerging concern and pathogens, in waters

FOREWARN will assess the occurrence, fate and behaviour of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and pathogens, and develop machine-learning methods to model their transfer and behaviour and build a decision support system (DSS) for predicting risks and propose mitigation strategies. FOREWARN will be focussed on CECs such as antibiotics and pathogens such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) and emerging viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2. The project will consider 2 types of case studies: 1) In-silico case studies will be selected from previous results, and dataset obtained in past or ongoing EU projects. Data will be used to develop the models and algorithms to feed and develop the DSS system to better understanding the sources, transport, degradation of CECs and pathogens and modelling their behaviour. 2) The adaptive DSS system will be refined and tested under real environmental conditions (6 months) to achieve TRL5 in real environment case studies.

Reference: ID400 (Aquatic Pollutants)

Start Date: 01/09/2021 – End Date: 31/08/2024

Project Leader: Esteban Abad Holgado , Marinella Farré Urgell

Researchers: Marta Llorca Casamayor

Support: Arianna Bautista Gea (Ari)

Funding: European Project

http://aquaticpollutants-forewarn.com/

IMAGE

Evaluation of contamInants and pathogens of emerging concern through wastewater-based epidemiology and risk assessment approaches

The main objective of IMAGE is to address the concern regarding the increasing presence of contaminants and pathogens of emerging concern in the different aquatic environments, and food webs, as well as their eventual impact on human health.

Funding agency: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (ref: PID2020-116789RB-C41)

Start Date: 01/09/2021 – End Date: 31/08/2024

Project Leader: Marinella Farré Urgell , Esteban Abad Holgado

Researchers: Maria K. Björnsdotter

Support: Arianna Bautista Gea (Ari)

Funding: National Project

EUROqCHARM

Plastic pollution has become a global environmental and societal concern in recent years. To develop long-term solutions to reduce plastic pollution, it is essential to establish harmonised methodologies.

Plastic pollution has become a global environmental and societal concern in recent years. To develop long-term solutions to reduce plastic pollution, it is essential to establish harmonised methodologies. EUROqCHARM recognises that harmonisation for large scale monitoring requires flexibility, comparability and reliability. We will identify Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP), resulting in a catalogue of RAP procedures for nano-, micro- and macro-plastics for the four target matrices. Each RAP will be validated in terms of Technology Readiness Level to decide if further validation is needed (by ILC).

Code: H2020-CLIMATE/0775
Referencia: 101003805

Start Date: 01/11/2020 – End Date: 31/10/2023

Project Leader: Marinella Farré Urgell

Researchers: Teresa Moreno Pérez , Esteban Abad Holgado

Funding: European Project

https://www.euroqcharm.eu/en/