PARCopedia ↗, the knowledge management and community platform developed under PARC for anyone interested in chemical risk assessment, is celebrating its first anniversary!

Since its launch in November 2023, PARCopedia has grown into a vibrant community with over 900 members from around the world. These members represent diverse stakeholder groups, including academia, government authorities, and the private sector. Over the past year, the platform's functionality and design have evolved significantly, and these enhancements will continue as PARCopedia progresses.

PARCopedia is supported by contributions from numerous PARC partners, including the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR ↗, Germany), National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA ↗, Portugal), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH ↗, Greece), German Environment Agency (UBA ↗, Germany), University of Birmingham (UoB ↗, United Kingdom), Masaryk University (MU ↗, Czech Republic), National School of Public Health - NOVA University of Lisbon (ENSP ↗, Portugal), General Chemical State Laboratory (GCSL ↗, Greece), Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO ↗, Belgium), and others.

A platform for bridging gaps and driving innovation

PARCopedia was created to facilitate knowledge sharing and foster meaningful collaboration among academic researchers, risk assessors, risk managers, and policymakers, all working towards safer chemicals for human health and the environment.

Historically, knowledge and language barriers have hindered progress within and across these groups. PARCopedia addresses these challenges through three main components:

• My Dashboard: A landing page featuring news, events, job offers, videos, community announcements, and user-generated public posts.
• Social media features: Personal and institutional profiles, private or public groups, discussion forums, and a built-in messaging app.
• Wikisection: A comprehensive repository with information on chemicals, methods, regulatory topics, institutions, projects, and a glossary of terms used in chemical safety assessments.

"Despite limited resources, the PARCopedia team has done an amazing job building and continuously enhancing this platform" says Matthias Herzler, Head of Unit at BfR and one of the co-leads of Knowledge Management and Uptake into Policy. "It is inspiring to see so many people coming together to create a community dedicated to innovating chemical risk assessment. In the coming year, we will focus on strengthening this community and motivating users to actively engage for the collective benefit.", he added.

Looking ahead

The latest updates on PARCopedia can be found in its first ↗ and second ↗ newsletters. New users are always welcome to join this dynamic platform and contribute to the growing network.

Free registration to PARCopedia is available here ↗.

Let’s continue building a stronger, more connected community for advancing chemical safety!