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

ACCIÓN

Aproximaciones científicas en la implementación de estrategias marinas: herramientas de gestión.

The main objective of the Marine Strategies Framework Directive is to protect the marine environment. To this end, Member States must develop Marine Strategies (EEMM) that include the initial assessment of the environmental status of national marine waters, the definition of the good environmental status (BEA) of the marine environment based on 11 descriptors, the establishment of environmental targets, the development and implementation of monitoring programmes designed to assess whether the BEA is being achieved, and programmes of measures aimed at achieving the BEA.
In Spain, the competent authority for the development of the EEMM is the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITERD). There is currently a need to improve scientific knowledge on the state of the marine environment at national level, its response and/or adaptation to climate change and to integrate it into decision-making on its management. The ACCIÓN project arises from this need and brings together a consortium of CSIC researchers with complementary experiences in the assessment and prediction of the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems and in the development of tools for response and adaptation to future scenarios. The IDAEA coordinates Eje 6: Pollution in fishery products, directly related to EEMM Descriptor 9.

Funding: Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico: European Union-NextGenerationEU Agreement between MITERD and CSIC, through PTI OCEANS+

Start Date: 01/01/2023 – End Date: 31/12/2025

Project Leader: Ethel Eljarrat Esebag

Researchers: Maria Vittoria Barbieri , Lara Cioni

Support: Valentina Araya Piqué

Funding: European Project

UPWATER

Understanding groundwater Pollution to protect and enhance WATERquality

Groundwater plays a key role in providing water supplies and livelihoods to respond the pronounced water scarcity. Groundwater pollution is a widespread worldwide problem. The scientific and technological goals of the UPWATER project are:
-To provide scientific knowledge on identification, occurrence and fate of pollutants in the groundwater with cost-efficient sampling methods based on passive samplers.
-To develop sources apportionment methods to identify and quantify the pollution sources.
-To validate and assess the performance of bio-based engineered natural treatment systems designed as mitigation solutions.
The monitoring and mitigation solutions will be validated in 3 case studies (Denmark, Greece and Spain), representing different climate conditions and a combination of rural, industrial and urban pollution sources. Expected outcomes include amongst others updating the EU chemical priority lists, scaling-up the pilot bio-based solutions to demonstration scale, the adoption of some preventive measures in the case studies and the close-to-market development of the passive sampling devices.

Start Date: 01/11/2022 – End Date: 30/11/2024

Project Leader: Enric Vázquez Suñé

Researchers: Sandra Pérez Solsona , Víctor Matamoros Mercadal , Sergi Díez Salvador , Sílvia Lacorte Bruguera , Eike Marie Thaysen , Victoria Osorio Torrens , Mònica Escolà Casas , Clara Laguna Marín , Sergio Santana Viera

Funding: European Project

Be Plastic Free

Fes el Canvi, Be Plastic Free

The "Fes el Canvi, Be Plastic Free" project is a citizen science project, which consists of the assessment and social awareness of human exposure to chemical compounds added to plastics, the plasticizers, through the participation of students aged 12 to 16 from Escola Solc in Barcelona. The starting point is to evaluate the amount of these plasticizer additives to which their bodies are exposed by wearing a bracelet for 24 hours and taking of a urine sample. In this way, the incorporation of inhaled and ingested plasticizer compounds is made visible and related to the daily life habits of the students. Once the results are obtained, several co-creative workshops will be held to reduce the use and exposure to plasticizing chemical compounds from plastics.

"Fes el canvi, Be Plastic Free" is presented as a collaborative project between the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), the Solc School, and the Zero Waste BCN organization.
This project has as an innovative element the fact that the students do not only provide and analyze data but are their own subjects of scientific study, also contributing to co-creating activities and dynamics to reduce the use of plastic materials.

Funded by the Barcelona City Council:
Convocatòria de subvencions per al desenvolupament de projectes en el marc de l’emergència climàtica de la ciutat de Barcelona 2022(22S06957-001)

Start Date: 01/11/2022 – End Date: 31/10/2023

Project Leader: Ethel Eljarrat Esebag

Researchers: Sandra Callejas Martos

Support: Ana Sotres Fernández , Alejandro Rodríguez Bermejo , Alicia Arroyo

Funding: Regional Project

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/

BIOFUNPAPER

Development of biodegradable multifunctional coatings for paper and cardboard packaging applications

Thin film polymer coating applications are one of the most common functional applications in the packaging industry. Due to the low weight of these plastic layers, their high surface-to-thickness ratio and the difficulty to separate it from the other layers in multilayer structures, their recyclability is not technically feasible nor economically / environmentaly worthwile. BIOFUNPAPER project aims at developing thin film coatings made of organic recyclable biopolymers for the development of hydrophobic and high barrier paper and cardboard coating, fully biodegradable, free of toxic additives and with lower environmental impact than what is currently available. The materials developed in the project will be fully assessed to ensure the performance as barrier and hydrophobic packaging materials as well as the compostability and biodegradability of the concepts in the environment.
The consortium of the project is composed of a multidisciplinary research team of 4 partners: Bioinicia SL (a biotech company devoted to electro-hydrodynamic processing of materials), the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC), the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), and the University Jaume I (UJI). The project will begin in a very low TRL 2-3 with the development of new materials, and will finish in high TRL 5-6 with the validation of the protoypes at an industrial scale.

Funding: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Proyectos de colaboración Público-Privada): CPP2021-008973

Start Date: 01/06/2022 – End Date: 31/12/2025

Project Leader: Ethel Eljarrat Esebag

Researchers: Sandra Callejas Martos , Lara Cioni

Funding: National Project

InChildHealth

Identifying determinants for indoor air quality and their health impact in environments for children: Measures to improve indoor air quality and reduce disease burdens.

3. InChildHealth will integrate health, environmental, technical and social sciences research to identify determinants for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and evaluate their impact in environments occupied by school children. We will focus on chemicals, particle concentrations, microorganisms and physical parameters in schools, homes, sports halls and transport. The IAQ of these environments determines the dose received by the children and may directly influence their health and well-being. An environmental epidemiological study and controlled interventions conducted in schools in three European cities will assess the health effects of multipollutant airborne exposures on respiratory infections, allergies, and neurological and cognitional symptoms. In addition, dose-response Will be evaluated with a novel cytotoxicity testing pipeline using in-vitro approaches. The InChildHealth consortium will cover an impressive variety of geographical and cultural diversity, with targeted exposure measurement campaigns and citizen involvement in seven European countries from Northern, Central and Southern Europe and interventions in Australia.

Horizon Europe, ref.: HORIZON-HLTH-2021-ENVHLTH-02-02

Start Date: 01/06/2022 – End Date: 31/05/2026

Researchers: Mar Viana Rodríguez , Ethel Eljarrat Esebag , Barend L. van Drooge , Lara Cioni

Support: Judith Desmet , Maria Antonia Aretaki (Μarianda)

Funding: European Project

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/

Exploring the environmental quality and toxicity profiles of soils from major e-waste sites in West Africa

West Africa has been the recipient of used electrical and electronic equipment imported onto the African continent with Nigeria, Republic of Benin and Ghana as the main import hub. Only 25% of the imported equipment is reportedly functional while 75% are either unserviceable or waste and hence, ends up in informal e-waste sites. The informal recycling of e-waste as practiced in West Africa has the potential to release a large quantity of contaminants into the recycling sites and the surrounding environment. Environmental matrices such as soil in the vicinity of the e-waste sites could be contaminated following informal e-waste recycling practices. Many children and adolescents work in these e-waste sites, risking negative impacts on their health. The number of harmful substances that humans could be directly or indirectly exposed to by e-waste is vast. The concentrations of these materials are variable but often are notably high, especially within the actual e-waste sites. Endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity and genotoxicity are among the health threats that can be expected from the diverse materials that are handled and that contaminate soil in such areas. Therefore in this present study, we will explore the environmental quality and toxicity profile of soil from major e-waste sites in West Africa using several endpoints which represent well established methods of routine testing in substance safety assessment. Moreover, we will analyse some families of persistent organic pollutants such as halogenated flame retardants and plasticizers, whose high presence has already been detected in e-waste. The study will contribute to sustaining research into understanding how exposure to mixture of e-waste chemicals trigger and contribute to diseases. The study is timely and novel considering the need to obtain accurate scientific data on the effects of exposure to hazardous chemicals in single and joint form. The outcome of this study will be used to generate an initial environmental health risk assessment report comparing the observed toxicity of soil from major e-waste sites in West Africa in order to inform and focus monitoring plans and risk management strategies.

Programa CSIC de Cooperación Científico para el Desarrollo I-COOP 2022, ref.: COOPB22064

Non-IDAEA personnel:
• Eze, Chukwuebuka, Federal University Oye-Ekiti (Nigeria)

Start Date: 01/01/2022 – End Date: 31/12/2024

Project Leader: Cinta Porte Visa

Researchers: Ethel Eljarrat Esebag , Mahboubeh Hosseinzadeh Soureshjani

Support: Tiantian Wang

Funding: National Project

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/