SIRENE: A New Global Framework for Advancing Exposome Research and Environmental Health

Coordinated by Masaryk University, SIRENE brings together 56 partners, including 10 ESFRI Landmarks, national nodes, and international collaborators. The project aims to create a seamless, integrated ecosystem of services that support environmental and health research, enabling scientists and policymakers to address some of Europe’s most pressing public health and environmental challenges.

A Transformative Vision for Environmental Exposure Science

SIRENE builds on the One Health and exposome paradigms, recognising that human health is shaped by the interaction of environmental, biological, social, and lifestyle factors. Its vision is to enable Europe to map environmental drivers of disease through harmonised, high‑resolution longitudinal data; to strengthen the evidence base for chemical safety, pollution reduction, climate adaptation, and public health protection; to bridge longstanding disciplinary gaps between environmental sciences, clinical research, omics, epidemiology, toxicology, and social sciences; and to provide open, interoperable access to complementary services across major European research infrastructures.

Integrated Research Infrastructure at European Scale

SIRENE unites world‑leading infrastructures such as BBMRI, ECRIN, EATRIS, Euro‑BioImaging, INSTRUCT, ACTRIS, AnaEE, ELIXIR, and SHARE, supported by environmental and biomedical centres across the continent.

This unique constellation gives researchers access to:

• Population cohorts and harmonised biobanks;
• Advanced mass spectrometry and exposomics platforms;
• Environmental and atmospheric monitoring stations;
• Toxicology and hazard‑assessment laboratories;
• High‑performance computing, FAIR‑compliant data environments, and federated analysis tools;
• Clinical trial and imaging infrastructures;
• Social and behavioural datasets for understanding inequalities and vulnerabilities.

Together, these capacities create a single, integrated ecosystem for exposure and health research—something no single country could achieve alone.

Objectives and Ambitions

SIRENE aims to significantly strengthen Europe’s capacity to understand and address how environmental factors influence human health by operationalising the exposome and One Health approaches. Its objectives focus on enabling challenge‑driven research through a unified access system, expanding both trans‑national and virtual access to high‑quality analytical, clinical, environmental, and computational services, and ensuring that all data and methods adhere to rigorous Open Science and FAIR principles. To achieve this, SIRENE invests in comprehensive training for research infrastructure staff and users, fosters an engaged user community that co‑creates integrated services, and demonstrates the feasibility of cross‑infrastructure workflows through pilot studies linking environmental, clinical, and social data. The project’s wider ambition is to deliver robust stakeholder engagement, translate findings into policy‑relevant knowledge, and secure long‑term sustainability so that harmonised exposome services continue to support scientific excellence, innovation, and public‑health impact across Europe

Scientific, Societal, and Policy Impact

SIRENE is designed to translate cutting‑edge research into actionable knowledge for:

• Public health agencies and policymakers, supporting EU initiatives such as the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, Zero Pollution Ambition, and the European Health Data Space.
• Researchers, enabling access to harmonised exposome, environmental, clinical, and omics capabilities.
• Industry and SMEs, especially those in environmental sensing, biotechnology, analytical chemistry, and digital health.
• Citizens, through better risk assessment, disease prevention strategies, and evidence‑based health protection.

The project is expected to:

• Improve exposure and chemical risk assessment methods;
• Bring mass spectrometry, biomonitoring, and sensor technologies closer to regulatory use;
• Enhance Europe’s capacity to anticipate environmental health risks—including climate‑related challenges;
• Strengthen European competitiveness in environmental health and exposomics science.

A New Era for Exposome Research in Europe

Just as EIRENE IMP will strengthen the foundations of the exposome infrastructure, SIRENE elevates the entire ecosystem from preparation to operational readiness. By opening access to interconnected infrastructures, harmonising methodologies, and enabling multidisciplinary research, SIRENE sets the stage for a new era in which Europe can systematically understand and mitigate environmental influences on human health.
For institutions, researchers, and policymakers across Europe, SIRENE offers not only new services, but a new strategic capability—one that will shape public health, environmental protection, and biomedical innovation for years to come.