Unique EU project to develop next-generation chemical risk assessment
EU's new Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) is a 7-year partnership, aimed at reducing exposure to hazardous chemicals and their effects on human health and the environment.
The project's ambition is to support EU's Chemicals Strategy for sustainable development and the Green Deal (a set of policy initiatives with the overarching aim of making the EU climate neutral in 2050) by promoting the implementation of new methods for risk assessment of chemicals. What is unique about PARC is that it is governed by the authorities and based on their needs for new methods. The partnership builds on previous EU projects, such as HBM4EU and EuroMix, where researchers from the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) at Karolinska Institutet has been an active partner in recent years.
PARC is the largest project funded under the new Horizon Europe framework program with around 200 different partners from 28 countries, including European and national authorities, universities and research institutes.
Anna Beronius, Annika Hanberg, Johanna Zilliacus, Penny Nymark, Linda Schenk and Agneta Åkesson from IMM will participate in different parts of PARC. Their activities in PARC reflect the broad expertise at IMM in various aspects of health risk assessment of chemicals, and will include evaluation of existing risk assessment methods, development of biomonitoring and exposure assessment methods, integration of data from new animal-free test methods, and how relevant data can be quality assured and made available in accordance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). IMM will also be involved in activities aimed at education and knowledge dissemination.
PARC is a unique partnership between researchers and authorities, and this will truly be an opportunity to contribute new knowledge and development of methodologies that can make a difference and contribute to sustainable development. The goals are ambitious, and we are excited to get started with the work!