Rapid Response Mechanism

Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM)

PARC has established a Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) to swiftly and efficiently address urgent needs. This mechanism enables PARC to respond dynamically to emerging challenges in human and environmental health, even when these fall outside its predefined priorities.

Who can activate the mechanism?

Governing Board members
Stakeholder Forum members
European Hub members (via Governing Board representative)
National Hub members (via Governing Board representative)

Activation process:

Contact the PARC Coordination Team at parcanses [dot] fr to request the "Urgent Needs Request Template".
Complete and submit the template.
Submit the completed template via email.
A response document, detailing the assessment and final decision, will be provided within 45 days.

To be eligible for RRM, a request must:

Align with PARC's research scope,
Address a human or environmental health concern,
Respond to a regulatory challenge,
Be unable to wait for the next PARC prioritisation cycle,
Not be an emergency situation.

Decision-making process:

The eligibility of the request is checked by PARC’s Governing Board and the priority setting group, led by ANSES, ECHA and EFSA, under the work package 2 (Common science-policy agenda).
A dedicated working group assesses the feasibility of the request.
Once validated, a response document is prepared by the working group.
PARC’s Governing Board validates the final decision.

Implementation:

Accepted requests are:

Integrated into an existing project and/or
Addressed through a new project.

This mechanism ensures PARC can effectively respond to urgent chemical risk assessment needs, maintaining its impact in safeguarding human and environmental health.

RRM in action

Case 1: PFAS restrictions in consumer products

The first activation came in October 2023, when Sweden’s Governing Board Representative flagged the need for robust methods to detect PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) ↗ in consumer products. With stricter regulations on PFAS emerging, reliable testing is essential to ensure compliance. PARC quickly responded by incorporating the request into its ongoing projects. By next year, proof-of-concept methods will be ready, paving the way for a larger initiative to build a network of specialised laboratories. This effort aims to equip Europe with the tools it needs to monitor PFAS effectively in the years ahead.

Case 2: Rising MnHexP levels in urinary concentrations

In February 2024, a joint request from the European Environment Agency ↗ and European Chemicals Agency ↗ highlighted an increase in MnHexP, a metabolite of the endocrine-disrupting compound Di-n-hexyl phthalate, found in European urine samples. The spike, particularly evident in children from Germany and adults in Denmark, raised urgent questions about its sources and health implications.

The request activated PARC’s RRM, enabling a rapid and coordinated investigation across Europe. The work combined human biomonitoring with targeted source-tracing approaches to identify exposure pathways.

In the months following the activation, investigations pointed out to a UV-filter used in sunscreens as the most probable contributor, with DnHexP (Di-n-hexyl phthalate) likely occurring as a contamination like the UV filter’s synthesis processes. A study conducted on this basis found that half of all randomly sampled sunscreens using this UV-filter also contained DnHexP. This interpretation was further supported by a clear seasonal pattern (higher exposure in summer months), a strong statistical association with sunscreen use, and evidence that exposure to the UV filter can result in measurable MnHexP in urine.

These insights have already helped to narrow down potential sources and guide further targeted investigations. Final results, expected by March 2025, will provide more robust evidence to support EU risk assessment and regulatory decision-making.

Case 3: Addressing data gaps on Alternaria toxins

In September 2025, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) requested support, under the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), to address critical data gaps related to certain Alternaria toxins. This request contributes to the update of EFSA’s Scientific Opinion on these substances, following a mandate from the European Commission (EFSA-Q-2024-00285).

EFSA had identified that essential data were missing to properly assess the risks of Alternaria toxins in food and feed, particularly for hazard characterisation. Existing evidence suggests that some of these toxins may be genotoxic, while more recent studies indicate potential immune and endocrine effects in animals and humans . To complete its risk assessment and derive robust reference points, EFSA required targeted new data within a very short timeframe.

Given the urgency, data needed by February 2026, the request was prioritised under the RRM. PARC responded by launching a dedicated project, “Bridging data gaps for some Alternaria toxins”, led by ANSES with contributions from the University of Vienna. The project officially ran from January to March 2026, with results delivered to EFSA as early as February–March 2026 .

The project focused on generating specific experimental data to fill EFSA’s identified gaps, including:

In vitro dose-response studies (e.g. on tenuazonic acid in oesophageal cells),
Metabolism studies in human and animal hepatocytes for key toxins (e.g. ATX-II, AME),
Transepithelial transport studies in intestinal cell models to better understand absorption.

In parallel, several ongoing PARC projects were already contributing complementary data on Alternaria toxins, ensuring a coordinated effort across the partnership. The results generated were directly shared with EFSA working groups and will feed into the updated Scientific Opinion, supporting the derivation of reference points for risk assessment and strengthening the scientific basis for regulatory decision-making .

This case illustrates how PARC supports EU agencies by rapidly mobilising expertise, infrastructure, and ongoing research activities to generate targeted scientific evidence under tight deadlines. By addressing emerging risks such as Alternaria toxins, PARC enhances Europe’s capacity to respond to urgent policy needs and to better protect animal and public health.

All thematic areas

Risk assessments

Learn new approaches and methods of health assessment and provide data to fill gaps in knowledge on poorly characterised contaminants or new emerging hazards while promoting the use of innovative methods.

Find out how we monitor chemicals guided by regulatory challenges both in humans and in the environment, observing different sources, chemical fates and exposure pathways.

Tools & resources

Learn how we are boosting innovation for modelling exposure and risks and monitoring chemicals in both human and environmental matrices.

Come to know how we are catalysing the shift towards safe and sustainable chemicals, materials and products to to minimize negative impacts on human health and the environment.

PARC is developing the Chemical Risk Assesssment Hub that will be a service to provide FAIR data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) to the different stakeholders.

Learn how the PARC Early Warning System helps protect your health and the environment by spotting harmful chemicals early, before they become a bigger problem.

Discover how the PARC Model Network helps make chemical risk assessment smarter, faster and more connected by linking tools and data to better protect your health and the environment.

Building infrastructure and human capacities

Get to know the European laboratories that belong to our existing network as well as the new recruitments in order to maintain and to strengthen monitoring capacities.

Check our mapping and cataloguing environmental (air, water/sediment, soil, biota, drinking water, food & feed) monitoring networks as well as the gaps and opportunities for future alignment.

Stay up to date on the latest trainings in the field of environmental monitoring and biomonitoring of chemicals to improve the overall quality of chemical risk assessment and management globally.

PARC has the ambition to make 70-80% of PARC-generated data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). This requires extensive technical development to provide the infrastructure needed, as well as training of FAIR implementers to support PARC partners and projects to implement the FAIR workflows being developed. Discover our progress in building FAIR skills and capacity here.

Check out how we work towards increased harmonisation of quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) in chemical analysis and toxicity testing to ensure that monitoring and hazard data generated in PARC are reliable, consistent, and comparable.

Science to policy

We are connecting PARC partners and external stakeholders, from both the research and the regulatory domains, to apply the long-term visions of the European policies related to chemical safety.

PARC is inviting the whole community of professionals in chemical risk assessment in Europe and worldwide to share their knowledge and ideas on the PARCopedia platform launched in November 2023. PARCopedia is a not-for-profit, ad-free knowledge management and social media environment.

PARC will develop a series of strategic roadmaps guiding step-by-step to the uptake of innovative science into the regulatory practice of chemical risk assessment in the EU. The first one will be NGRAroute, an activity to implement Next Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA) in all major legislations on chemicals in the EU.

See the Next Generation Risk Assessment in action for the benefit of human and the environment.

Explore how PARC’s Rapid Response Mechanism tackles urgent health and environmental challenges.