Toxicology and risk assessment are undergoing a paradigm shift, from a phenomenological to a mechanistic discipline based on in vitro and in silico approaches that represent an important alternative to classical animal testing applied to the evaluation of chronic and systemic toxicity risks. Large databases and highly sophisticated methods, algorithms and tools are available for different tasks such as hazard prediction, toxicokinetics, and in vitro-in vivo extrapolations to support this transition. However, since these services are developed independently and provided by different groups world-wide, there is no standardised way to access the data or run modelling workflows.
The main objective of the project was to provide an open e-infrastructure making available existing resources and services in an easier-to-use, harmonised and interoperable way to a variety of communities requiring risk assessment, including chemicals, cosmetic ingredients, therapeutic agents and nanomaterials. To achieve this goal, more specific objectives were defined and used continuously throughout the project to guide the developments, prototyping, implementation, showcasing of functionality, dissemination and training and support offerings. The approach taken in OpenRiskNet supports also the overall goal of the targeted communities on the implementation of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) principles.
OpenRiskNet developed and deployed an integrated, secure, service-driven and sustainable infrastructure for data management, data sharing, processing, analysis, information mining, modelling and simulations. Development and sharing of analysis workflows, visualisation and reporting were also supported. These developments were focused to support communities in the areas of toxicology, risk assessment and chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and nanomaterial product development, including safety-by-design. OpenRiskNet e-infrastructure supports all aspects of these areas by allowing for the integration of all toxicology-related data sources, for the implementation and execution of processing and analysis pipelines and for the execution of modelling workflows for pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics. OpenRiskNet activities improved the accessibility, interoperability and standardisation of existing services, interconnected them and developed protocols for their deployment on all relevant hardware settings including aspects of data security.
