Key messages

• The MIND platform advances next-generation ERA approaches that better reflect real-world ecosystem impacts.
• It connects existing data, methods, and expertise across Europe to reduce duplication, close gaps, and improve the usability of scientific outputs in regulatory decision-making.
• It strengthens coordination between regulators, scientists, and stakeholders, supporting One Health–aligned risk assessment across EU legislation and contributing to the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 ↗.
• Systems-thinking underpins MIND, guiding problem formulation, system-boundary definition, identification of feedback loops between prospective and retrospective ERA, and adaptive use of monitoring data.

Overview

The MIND–Biodiversity platform (Mapping, Integrating, Networking, Driving) is a strategic initiative to improve how chemical risks are assessed in order to better protect biodiversity and ecosystems across Europe. It supports the development of next-generation and systems-based ERA, aligned with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and grounded in One Health principles.

MIND functions as a collaborative coordination hub, linking predictive and monitoring-based approaches while connecting fragmented research, data, and expertise from PARC and other initiatives. Rather than creating new structures, it focuses on aligning and strengthening existing capacities, maximising available resources, and identifying priority gaps.

Its approach is structured around four pillars. Mapping identifies existing tools, data, and gaps and aligns them with policy needs. Integrating combines scientific approaches across disciplines to support more coherent and robust regulatory decisions. Networking builds a cross-sector community linking science, policy, and regulation. Driving establishes governance mechanisms to ensure transparency, coordination, and long-term continuity.

The platform aims to embed integrative, science-based assessment frameworks at the science–policy interface, supporting more coherent, efficient, and effective EU risk assessment. In doing so, it contributes to a broader vision of a unified MIND platform integrating human health and environmental risk assessment.

Policy relevance

ERA is the primary regulatory tool to evaluate chemical safety in the EU, but it remains fragmented and insufficiently aligned with real-world ecosystem conditions. Current approaches typically assess single substances, rely on limited test species, and focus on isolated environmental compartments, which constrains their ability to address mixtures, cumulative pressures, and landscape-scale effects.

While research initiatives have developed more advanced tools and approaches, their uptake in regulatory practice remains limited. As a result, valuable data and methods are underused, and the capacity to assess cumulative risks is constrained.

MIND addresses this gap through a systems-based approach that goes beyond adding new tools. It supports decision-making by clarifying which level of assessment is needed, where next-generation methods provide added value, where integrated evidence is required, and how monitoring and system-level feedback can inform adaptive risk management.

By strengthening coordination between science and policy, and building on initiatives such as PARC, MIND contributes to a more coherent, efficient, and biodiversity-relevant EU risk assessment framework.