Governance structure

Use the interactive map above to discover the governance structure of P-A-R-C.

P-A-R-C Executive bodies

PARC is organised in nine Work Packages (WPs) working closely together to achieve three levels of specific objectives as mentioned above. 

WP1 “Partnership Management and Coordination” is in charge of the overall coordination, including the administrative and financial management of the Partnership, the monitoring of the implementation of the activities, their follow-up through reporting, the development and monitoring of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the organisation of PARC governance meetings and the IPR and Ethics activities. This WP is managed by ANSES (France) as coordinating institution of PARC and will involve the participation of the members of the Grant Signatory Board, the WP co-leaders, the National Hub Contacts Points and the National Hub Co-coordinators. 

WP2 “A common science-policy-agenda” will establish a cross-disciplinary network to set priorities for research and innovation (R&I) in chemical risk assessment. The overall goal of WP2 is to ensure the adequate links between the research and the regulatory EU-added value, as well as ensuring the sustainability of the PARC activities, results and outputs after 7 years. WP2 will implement a process to ensure harmonised, fit for purpose priority settings. WP2 will also set up a common agenda at the science-policy interface through a prioritisation process, making available PARC knowledge and actively promoting its regulatory consideration, also working towards the sustainability of the network. This WP is co-led by the EEA (EU) and EAA (Austria). 

WP3 “Synergies, collaborations and awareness” will ensure the development of synergies and collaborations with external initiatives. WP3 will be in charge of stakeholder relations and international cooperation and will develop appropriate tools for the communication and dissemination of the results of PARC. This WP will be co-led by INSA (Portugal) and GCSL (Greece).

The R&I WPs (WP4, WP5, WP6) will support the regulatory assessment of chemical risk and the move towards next-generation risk assessment by implementing a joint R&I programme to respond to the agreed priorities defined in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) rolling plan. WPs 4, 5 and 6 will specifically work together on these.

WP4 “Monitoring and exposure” will aim at monitoring and measuring exposure both in humans and in the environment, taking into account the different sources, chemical fates & exposure pathways, working on necessary innovative analytical methods & tools. This WP is co-led by UBA (Germany) and SpF (France). 

WP5 “Hazard assessment” will contribute to the consideration of new approaches and methods of health assessment and provide data to fill gaps in knowledge on poorly characterised contaminants or new emerging hazards. WP5 will also aim to promote the use of innovative methods and tools and contribute to integration of new technologies. PARC is not intended to close all data gaps identified by key stakeholders and efforts will be focused on agreed priorities. This WP is co-led by ANSES (France) and BfR (Germany). 

WP6 “Innovation in regulatory risk assessment” will contribute to the development of regulatory workable and effective RA methods for human health and the environment, including AOPs and IATAs, to support regulatory processes, transition to a circular economy and relevant policy-related strategies. The IATAs will be developed in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders and evaluated through dedicated case studies. WP6 will also facilitate the development of innovative and practical approaches for exposure and risk assessment to prioritised chemicals (including mixture) and to better understand their impact on human health and on the environment to inform regulatory approaches. Review of existing regulatory assessment systems, will be carried out to prioritise research and facilitate the uptake of new approaches. This WP is co-led by RIVM (Netherlands) and KEMI (Sweden).

WP7 “FAIR Data” will strengthen exchange and reuse of research and regulatory data. For this, WP7 will interact with all the WPs to facilitate the access, storage and analysis of data, and the interfacing with the modelling and analysis tools developed by the WPs 4, 5, 6 and 8. It will work on data and metadata harmonisation as well as on the  FAIR data policies. Furthermore, it will develop innovative tools for analysing increasing amounts of data and their uncertainty. This WP is co-led by VITO (Belgium) and UOB (United Kingdom).

WP8 “Concepts and Toolboxes” will make available concepts and toolboxes in the form of integrative models, concepts and tools for the assessment of safe and sustainable substances by design and the concept of early warning. WP8 will work together with the different WPs and external communities including stakeholders, working on these concepts. In particular, stakeholders will be engaged in order to test the applicability of the safe and sustainable by design  (SSbD) toolbox to the defined criteria. This WP is co-led by AUTh (Greece) and UNINA (Italy).

WP9 “Building infrastructural and human capacities” will support the development of laboratory capacities and networking, both in the different fields of activities, by identifying existing and to be developed networks, supporting the implementation of standardisation approaches, evaluation of the reproducibility of performances and their monitoring (QA/QC) and setting up training for the Partnerships’ members, stakeholders, and the risk assessors and managers communities. This WP is co-led by MU (Czech Republic) and ISCIII (Spain).

Data and Ethics Protection Board (DEPB): The DEPB supports the MB in these matters, ensuring PARC’s actions take these into account, reviewing all related documents as well as established processes for the management of contractual and regulatory requirements.