Objective
Pesticides are used to control or eliminate pests and diseases occurring in agriculture, food storage and so on. They are therefore present in many kinds of environment, such as surface water. Pesticides are toxic for humans and animals, and consequently (international) standards and regulations safeguard our environment (EC Directive 80/778/EEC, 1980). If the concentration of pesticides remains too high EC regulations stipulate that drinking water companies stop taking up surface water and stop supplying drinking water. Water companies therefore continually monitor the degree of pesticide contamination in surface and drinking water. Conventional and recognised analysis techniques only measure the presence and quantity of one pesticide, are expensive (400 ECU per analysis) and time consuming (about 2 days per analysis). Because of this, the number of analyses performed is limited and optimal quality control is nearly impossible. Other industries such as food processing, veterinary science, pharmacy and biochemistry have similar problems. The main objective of the MAI WATER project is to RTD Multi Analyte Immunoassay (MAI) systems for the simultaneous detection and measurement of multiple pesticides in surface water.
Compared to conventional analysing methods MAI will (1) provide simultaneous analysis of several pesticides, (2) be easy to use in Lab and Field, (3) reduce costs by 80 90%, (4) detecting less than 0.1 ?g/L (EC Norm) and (5) analyse 5 20 times faster.
The research objectives are (1) RTD of simultaneous detection of several pesticides, (2) RTD of a MAI Bio Sensor field system, (3) RTD of a new fluorescent, signal producing compound (tracer) and (4) MAI Lab and MAI Field System prototypes development and testing. Novelty Verification (literature, patents, end users) shows that MAI for pesticides is an innovative product. A MAI WATER feasibility study has concluded that it is technically feasible to develop Multi Analyte Immunoassays, where, by using various antibodies and various tracers, the presence and concentrations of multiple target compounds (pesticides) can be determined simultaneously.
The proposed RTD is divided into 3 workgroups containing 8 tasks: (1) synthesis of immunogens and enzyme tracers, (2) polyclonal antibodies, (3) prototype testing of individual antibodies and tracers, (4) prototype testing of combinations of antibodies, (5) MAI Field system (Bio Sensor), (6) Lab prototype testing of MAI Lab system and MAI Field system, (7) in situ prototype testing and (8) final evaluation. With MAI, more analyses will be performed, resulting in a much improved water quality control. Furthermore, pollution detection and intervention will be more rapid, providing positive benefits to Public Health. Also, the chance of catching environmental polluters will be substantially increased from almost nil to 100%.
There are four potential users: (1) National and (2) Local Government, surface water; (3)Water Boards, intake water, (4) Environmental Bodies, ground and dune water. A successful MAI WATER project will result into potential markets in the EU for MAI Lab Systems at ECU 75 million and for MAI Field Systems at ECU 25 million per year. The annual potential market outside EU will be ECU 100 300 million depending on use in developing countries. The partnership brings together two SME partners, three RTD Performers and two end users from two EU countries. The MAI WATER project will cost approx. 520 kECU and will take 24 months.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processesdrinking water treatment processes
- agricultural sciencesveterinary sciences
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental scienceshydrology
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
6546 MH Nijmegen
Netherlands