Objectives

The aim of this WP is, within the first 18 month, to identify societal, economic scientific and public health needs in Europe and beyond that can be addressed by an exposome infrastructure and to map and analyze recent developments in exposomics tools and methods and its relevance to EIRENE.

Tasks (month 1-18)

T1.1: How can exposome tools address European and global societal, economic and public health needs. (Task leader: Inserm, partners CNR, UU, MU, VITO)

The aim of this task is to analyze the current state of the environmental and socioeconomic exposures of the European citizens and societies as well as future scenarios and to identify exposome tools that can at least partially address major challenges related to climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution. Since the exposome is a holistic concept that integrates all exposures over the lifetime, it aims to collect and analyze large amounts of heterogenous data (analytical, hazard-related, social, etc.) in long time series. The scientific, methodological and technological development is extremely rapid. As a continuation of EIRENE PPP, Inserm will lead the task and together with partners CNR, UU, VITO, MU will further analyse the scientific literature, and the latest reports from international and European boards and agencies (IPCC, IPPC, REACH, IPBES, UNEP, WHO, EEA, etc.) and outcomes of relevant EU projects (e.g. EHEN cluster, IHEN, PARC). They will have direct interaction with leading researchers within the given research area. A final report (Exposome tools to address European environmental societal and economic needs), Del. 1.1 (M18), will describe the conclusions of such analysis.

T1.2: Recent developments and challenges in analytical, digital and social tools and methods (Task leader: CNR, partners Inserm, UU, MU, JSI, UNIVIE)

The task aims to analyze recent technological developments in exposome research tools and methods in Europe and worldwide to develop a vision for European infrastructure and assess EIRENE's progress. The analysis will focus on mass spectrometry advancements including signal detection capacity, chemical identification speed, scalability for millions of samples, and identification of complementary analytical technologies. In hazard assessment, the review will cover biomarkers, new toxicology tools such as NAMs, development of high-evidence AOPs, and integration of AI-empowered QSAR approaches like Alphafold for risk assessment enhancement. Digital exposome technologies including sensors, wearables, AI models, and data science applications will be examined alongside geospatial and isotopic methods for scaling exposure and effect assessments. The methodology involves comprehensive literature review of scientific publications and EU project outcomes with AI support, complemented by engagement with industry and relevant user groups. Beyond a literature review, engagement with industry and relevant user groups will be crucial. A final Report on recent developments and challenges in analytical, digital and social tools and methods (D1.2, M18) will be the key outcome of this task. CNR will lead the task and review the geospatial methods. MU and UNIVIE will review Mass spectrometry methodologies and Inserm and UU will review the hazard methods. JSI will contribute its expertise particularly in emerging analytical and isotopic methods, identifying opportunities for scaling up exposure and effect assessments, UU with Report on recent developments in exposomics tools and methods (Del 1.3, M18) will be the key outcome of this task.

T1.3 Interim service catalogue development (Task leader: MU, partners CNR, Inserm, UU, MU, VITO, all)

Based on the efforts and outcomes of the T1.1 and T1.2 the service architecture will be specified in terms of distributed and centrally provided services, which shall be offered by all EIRENE partners at the national and central level. The task leader will ensure the service catalogue will be up to date and proposed structure will mirror existing services, ambitions and possibilities of national partners and EIRENE Central Hub, and that this will be properly communicated and discussed with the BGR. The outcome will become the input for the EIRENE governance, finance and business models and their interim versions. The Interim service catalogue (D1.4, M12) and Draft service architecture (D1.5, M18) will be the outcome of this task, and which will also contain the scheme of the single-entry access point for users. In cooperation with WP7 and WP8, the User access policies will be finalized and implemented at the central level. MU will coordinate the task, communicate with all the partners and finalize its outcomes. CNR, UU, Inserm and VITO will feed the expertise (methods) described in T1.2 into the architecture model and service catalogue. All the project partners will update existing service catalogue, provide the information about new services, planned development of their facilities, and their capacities to contribute to centrally provided services.