The Third PARC SYNnet Forum took place on Wednesday, 17 September 2025, at the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre ↗, back-to-back with the EUROTOX 2025 congress ↗. The Forum brought together researchers, regulators, and stakeholders to exchange knowledge on advancing chemical safety assessment through new scientific approaches and collaborative networking.

The two-hour programme showcased recent progress within PARC and emphasized how Next Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA) and New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) ↗ can be translated into regulatory practice in support of the EU’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability ↗.

Invited speaker Lena Smirnova (Johns Hopkins University) presented on "Modeling gene-environment interactions with Brain Microphysiological Systems", highlighting how advanced in vitro models can shed light on developmental neurotoxicity and contribute to generation risk assessment.

Speakers highlighted advances ranging from PARC’s knowledge management strategy and its role in regulatory implementation of NGRA (Sónia Namorado) to the use of NAMs for assessing immunotoxicity (Nina Franko) and their integration into pesticide dossiers (Anastasia Repouskou). Additional presentations introduced the PARC Safe and Sustainable by Design toolbox (Denis Sarigiannis) and progress on the PARC Early Warning System (Nikiforos Alygizakis).

Participants discussed cutting-edge research, strategies for knowledge management, safe and sustainable innovation, and tools for identification of early and emerging risks. The event highlighted the importance of collaboration, data harmonization, and knowledge sharing to ensure that scientific advances are effectively translated into regulatory decision-making.

By taking place immediately after EUROTOX 2025 ↗, the SYNnet Forum benefited from strong synergies with the wider toxicology community, reinforcing its role as a key platform for aligning science, regulation, and policy towards a toxic-free environment in Europe.