Microplastics (MPs) of various morphologies ranging from 1 µm - 5.0 mm in size have been ubiquitously detected in the environment, food, drinking water, and biota and may pose a threat to food safety, and human health. The highest reported concentration of MPs comes from the processing of foods in plastic packaging. MPs exposure to humans is more prevalent in infants than in any other age group due to the use of polypropylene (PP) based products in formula preparation. The difference in food intake and digestive physiology between infants and adults have been indicated as key contributors to the distinct patterns of proteolysis. In spite of MPs being frequently consumed with food proteins, data on the digestion process of cow’s milk in the presence of MPs are not available. The broad aim of the proposal is to investigate the effect of MPs from plastic packaging material on the digestibility of proteins in adults and infants. The project will focus on specific objectives: comparative digestibility of cow’s milk proteins in the presence of MPs (and aged MPs) in adult and infant digestion models; digestion of infant formulas in the presence of MPs in infant digestion models. The proposed study will use methodology applied in prior research and harmonised protocols for adult and infant digestion. To achieve the proposed aims, the researcher will get training through know-how transfer and research in digestion models, protein analysis, and digestomics from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Chemistry and get knowledge on MPs preparation and characterization during the short visit to Maastricht University Polymer Department. The proposed project aims to study an issue that has attracted global attention and therefore, the communication and dissemination measures will be oriented both to the scientific society and the wider public. The project will generate new knowledge on the impact of MPs on human nutrition and provide data that may be adopted by policymakers.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals widely used for more than 60 years to make plastics, firefighting foams, and lubricants, and help create stain-resistant, waterproof, and nonstick products. However, they ended up in the environment and now can be found in the soil, water, sediment, accumulated in human bodies and represent a worldwide challenge. The Serbian national chemicals legislation recognizes these chemicals, but none of the existing scientific or governmental institutions analyze these compounds. In addition, a solution to the challenge of remediation is not in sight. Based on a number of publications in peer-reviewed journals, a number of international projects, and a number of students, the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Chemistry (UBFC) is one of the leading scientific institutions in Serbia. This project aims to enhance networking activities between UBFC and two top-class counterparts, who are leaders in PFAS analysis (CSIC from Spain) and innovative (bio)remediation of emerging pollutants (BRGM from France). In addition, this project will focus on strengthening the research management capacities and administrative skills of the Grant Office from UBFC. This will be conducted through the development of a scientific strategy for dealing with PFAS (WP1), knowledge transfer in the field of analysis and (bio)remediation of emerging pollutants (WP2), networking and promoting joint research integrating creativity and developing new approaches for PFAS remediation (WP3), capacity building of the UBFC Grant Office (WP4), and through dissemination, exploitation and communication (WP5). The expected impact of PFASTwin is to enhance the reputation, research and administrative profile, and networking channels of UBFC and improve its capability to compete successfully for national, EU, and international research funding while simultaneously benefiting partner institutions through new contacts, skills, and collaborations.

The objective of FoodEnTwin is to create a networking collaboration among the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Chemistry (UBFC) and its Center of Research Excellence for Molecular Food Sciences (CoE MFS) and four high renowned institutes from Sweden, Austria and Belgium providing a unique opportunity for UBFC and its partners to increase their scientific excellence and visibility, technology innovation capacity and enable frontier research at the crossroad of food, agriculture, nutrition and environmental sciences by the infusion of –omics technologies (proteomics, lipidomics, transcriptomics, and metalomics). The project will focus on the key target actions of twinning of research activities through networking, training and lecturing program resulting in a roadmap for a future collaboration, organization of three public Summers Schools type, internal and external expert driven Technology Workshops and Academia-Industry meetings, and finally bringing the European Food Chemistry conference (EuroFoodChem) in 2021 to the UBFC in Serbia to increase the UBFC, the Serbian and the European visibility in the fields of food sciences. The scientific topic addresses the major challenge of how environmental pollution affects food we eat at the molecular level and therefore the project will also have a significant societal impact. Dissemination will take care of this aspect by bringing the networking ideas to a broad public, from experts, the science community and industry stakeholder organization, to the interested, non-professional crowd, making society more aware of the impact environment has on the food we eat and the importance of new approaches in food, nutrition and environmental sciences.