Marta Llorca Casamayor
934006162 - int: 437900
mlcqam@idaea.csic.es
ORCID:
0000-0002-6065-2129
Research group: Environmental and Water Chemistry for Human Health (ONHEALTH)
I was doctorate in Chemistry in December 2012 with cum laude honors and my PhD thesis was awarded as the best one of the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Barcelona during the course 2012-2013. Since then, I've been involved in the study and development of new methodologies for the analysis of emerging contaminants in food and in the environment, with special interest on micro/nanoplastics in the environment (including fuel-based and bio-based polymers) and their potential entrance to food web. Since January 2022 I have a permanent position as a Researcher in IDAEA-CSIC.
My research has been carried out thorough the participation in 11 National projects, four as PI (two on-going) and two as the Project Manager, 7 European projects and 1 international project. In addition, I won a short stage Marie Curie fellowship in the scope of Environmental Chemoinformatic - Initial Training Network during my PhD to be developed in Hochschule Fresenius University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and, afterwards, I obtained a postdoctoral fellowship IJCI-2014-21736 in 2016.
This research yielded, since 2008, 61 scientific papers (20 as the first author) in SCI journals from the first quartile, and 8 book chapters and I have participated in 44 national and international conferences, with 29 oral communications and 32 poster presentations. According to the Scopus ranking, my publications have been cited more than 2,700 times, resulting in a H-index of 32 (2008-2022). Furthermore, my research has also been echoed in mass media, including general newspaper and audiovisual (radio and TV).
Dr. Llorca, doctorate in Chemistry in December 2012 with Cum Laude honours, was awarded with the best PhD thesis of the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Barcelona during the course 2012-2013. During her PhD won a short stage Marie Curie fellowship in the scope of Environmental ChemOinformatic – Initial Training Network (eco-itn). Since 2016 she has a postdoctoral fellowship Juan de la Cierva Incorporación (IJCI-2014-21736) to develop her investigation at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (IDAEA-CSIC).
She has participated in 8 National projects (one as the lead IP and two as the Project Manager (Integra-Coast; and PLAS-MED (in course)), 6 European projects and 1 international project. She has published 47 scientific papers (17 as the first author) in SCI journals from the first quartile since 2008, 5 book chapters and participated in 36 national and international conferences with 22 platform presentations and 26 poster presentations. According to the Scopus ranking, her publications have been cited more than 1140 times, resulting in a H-index of 23 (2008-2018).
Main research line focuses on the study of new emerging contaminants, their fate, behaviour, ecological impact to the environment, their potential transferability from the environment to food and drinking water, and, finally, their effects to humans. In this sense, the investigations are based on target and non-target studies. Afterwards, these investigations are applied as the basis of risk assessment studies.

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)