PRORISK was extremely lucky and recruited 15 highly motivated, hard working and determined ESRs who pro-actively formed a lively team working on their individual research projects. COVID-19 had strong impact on onboarding and initial networking among ESRs as well as on the start of the research, when ESRs remained isolated home without interaction with colleagues and without access to locked hosting institutions. Nevertheless, due to the diligence and determination of ESRs and all PRORISK team, the initial delays were successfully overcome and the plans were fully implemented without major deviations.
PRORISK developed a coherent and attractive training programme through strong collaboration of academic, regulatory and industry experts. It advanced both research skills and transferable and career skills. The activities included five Advanced Training Schools, orchestrated secondments, series of integrative workshops on ecosystem services and NG-ERA case studies. As of May 2024, 5 ESRs successfully defended PhD and continue careers as postdoctoral researchers in academia or experts in regulatory agencies.
PRORISK delivered multiple advancements to science from which following can be highlighted:
• Extensive prioritizations of hazardous chemicals at the European scale from different classes - pharmaceuticals, pesticides, perfluorinated compounds
• Knowledge on molecular mechanisms beyond the interactions of environmental parameters with biological effects showing thus the evidence that risks of contaminants are likely to increase in a warmer and dryer changing climate
• Complex AOPs that not only advance knowledge but directly support risk assessors at the global scale
• Higher tier microcosm studies that allowed to extrapolate from individual effects to populations
• Modelling tools linking the individual effects of chemical exposures (feeding, reproduction) to higher population levels, catchment scales and ecosystem services
• Advanced approaches to quantify the chemical damage on ecosystem services up to the socio-economic life cycle assessment
• Socio-economic tools evaluating the perception of chemical risks in the society
The scientific performance is documented by numerous presentations and publications with 22 papers of the ESRs published in high quality scientific journals and 28 additional in draft as of May 2024.
Dissemination of PRORISK mission and outcomes to diverse audiences was achieved through updated website (
https://prorisk-h2020.eu/(si apre in una nuova finestra)) social media (
https://twitter.com/PRORISK_H2020(si apre in una nuova finestra);
https://www.linkedin.com/company/prorisk-h2020/(si apre in una nuova finestra)) series of newsletters or professional PRORISK video. Dissemination culminated in the final workshop with stakeholders organized in Amsterdam, NL, in October 2023. The workshop disseminated the outcomes and collected positive feedback from representatives of all domains including international regulatory bodies (ECHA, EFSA, OECD), national authorities (RIVM, US EPA), industry partners, consultancy companies and academic researchers.
