Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Governing PFAS under Climate Change: Data Infrastructure Development and Integration in Denmark

Project description

Understanding PFAS-climate change connections through data studies

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent pollutants affected by climate change. Flooding and drought can mobilise PFAS in coastal areas. European countries, particularly Denmark, are investing in data to understand these connections, but research remains limited. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PF-ARCHIVE project will explore how climate-exacerbated PFAS data influences governance of ‘combo disasters’ in Denmark. It will examine the development of PFAS data infrastructures by researchers and companies and their impact on coastal communities. The project will analyse daily work at a Copenhagen research centre and will examine how various stakeholders, including politicians and farmers, use this data. It will also highlight the management of cumulative hazards within knowledge infrastructures.

Objective

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often called “forever chemicals,” are among the most persistent pollutants and, as emerging science shows, are exacerbated by climate change. New pathways include mobilization of concentrated PFAS in coastal soils and sea spray during flooding, drought, and extreme winds. European countries—especially Denmark—are investing in data infrastructure to better understand climate-exacerbated PFAS. Critical data studies highlight the limits of fragmented, “chemical-by-chemical” regulation, yet few examine the infrastructures linking PFAS and climate impacts. Likewise, environmental governance scholarship traces jurisdictional and temporal divisions that hinder climate action but rarely considers intersections with toxic chemicals. PF-ARCHIVE proposes a qualitative study of how climate-exacerbated PFAS is made into a data object and infrastructure, modulating governance of “combo disasters” across temporal and spatial scales. Methodologically, the project employs ethnographic fieldwork and digital archiving to examine how Danish researchers and enterprises develop PFAS data infrastructures and how these are emplaced in diverse coastal communities. It will trace the daily work of scientists at a new PFAS research center in Copenhagen and how politicians, farmers, and advocacy groups use data in two rural and urban-coastal Danish settings. Through an ethnographic account of climate-exacerbated PFAS as a data object shaped by exceptional timescales—and an analysis of how related infrastructures reshape relationships and conceptions of place in affected coastal communities—PF-ARCHIVE will show the challenges and significance of “combo-disaster” knowledge infrastructures in a strong regulatory setting. PF-ARCHIVE thus advances the social sciences and the public interest by showing how combinatory and cumulative hazards are handled across data infrastructures, places, and governance regimes.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

IT-UNIVERSITETET I KOBENHAVN
Net EU contribution
€ 247 553,28
Address
RUED LANGGAARDSVEJ 7
2300 KOBENHAVN
Denmark
Region
Danmark Hovedstaden Byen København
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data