The European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) has reached an exciting milestone in making research results more accessible to the public. Fourteen projects from across all four of the Partnership’s key topic areas have now been published on the PARC projects webpage. This development is a significant first step in ensuring that vital research findings are given the visibility they deserve while making them understandable for a broader audience. 

Enhancing accessibility and visibility of research within PARC

The uploaded projects reflect PARC’s commitment to tackling some of today’s most pressing chemical-related challenges, aligned with the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA ↗) Key Areas of Regulatory Challenge (KARC ↗). These efforts focus on four core thematic areas:

1. Providing protection against the most harmful chemicals
2. Addressing chemical pollution in the natural environment
3. Protecting biodiversity
4. Shifting away from animal testing

In addition, each project aligns with at least one of PARC’s nine priority themes:

1. Next Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA)
2. Environment
3. Risk Assessment
4. Human health
5. Monitoring methods
6. Health effects
7. Mixtures
8. Human biomonitoring
9. Workers

Each project page presents the content of the PARC research projects. To make results accessible to a wider audience, technical jargon is minimised, and abbreviations are avoided. Viewers can easily get an overview of what each project is about, the progress achieved so far, and the potential societal and environmental impacts. Additionally, essential details such as timelines, partner institutions, project contacts, and other media are presented on a single page. 

Sneak-peek into the projects

To give an insight into PARC's research projects, here are previews from three of the published research projects:

1. This project on human biomonitoring studies, focuses on understanding how effectively European policies, like the European Green Deal ↗ and Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability ↗, minimise chemical exposure risks. By using harmonised human biomonitoring data, the project coordinators Liese Gilles (VITO ↗) and Susana Pedraza Diaz (ISCIII ↗) aim to assess how lifestyle, environment, and diet influence chemical exposure across regions. They emphasise that detecting emerging chemical risks - including substitutes for banned substances - will serve as an early warning system, protecting public health and the environment.
2. Building on the success of HBM4EU ↗, the project lead Eva Govarts (VITO ↗) highlights, that the goal of this project on leveraging data on human biomonitoring is to maximise the value of extensive biomonitoring data collected in previous studies. By conducting new analyses, they are uncovering insights into exposure sources and health impacts, supporting regulatory action and chemical safety across Europe. This work then directly contributes to Europe’s zero-pollution ambition ↗, helping to group chemicals effectively and avoid harmful substitutions.
3. As concerns grow around bisphenol A (BPA ↗), Katerina Kyriakopoulou (BPI ↗), Ondřej Adamovský, and Ludek Blaha (MU ↗) coordinate this project that aims to uncover the risks of BPA alternatives. As BPA substitutes are emerging as new contaminants in water, soil, and air, their project investigates their environmental persistence and toxicity, addressing gaps in data and assessing their long-term effects on ecosystems and health. They emphasise the need for improved safety evaluations to ensure these alternatives do not pose similar risks as BPA itself.

Other PARC projects explore innovative testing methods for chemical exposure on infants or of chemicals in food, simplify human biomonitoring implementation, and delve into environmental challenges like wastewater contaminants and harmful substances in aquatic systems as well as much more. 

Looking ahead

Publishing descriptions of the first fourteen projects is only the beginning. Building up a comprehensive representation of all PARC research projects follows a broader commitment to transparency and public engagement. In the coming months, the project webpage will be expanded to include all research projects within PARC. By making the outcomes of the Partnership’s work more accessible, the initiative aims to bridge the gap between scientific research and societal impact, fostering informed decision-making, awareness, and policy-making.

Visit the PARC Projects webpage to explore all fourteen projects, learn more about the progress being made in the field of chemical risk assessment, and stay tuned for further projects to be published on the PARC project page!