KKNOWPEC, Knowledge for pesticides control, aims to create a transnational research network between Europe and Latin America focused on the challenge of unwanted pesticides in the environment. KNOWPEC wants to identify the occurrence and fate of banned and toxic pesticides in drinking and natural waters in agricultural areas of Latin America where knowledge on occurrence and risk is scarce. KNOWPEC wants to assess the environmental and potential human risks of the pesticides detected, and to provide solutions for both reducing pollution at source, and remediating contaminated water. Together, KNOWPEC will promote the sharing of knowledge at each step from pesticide analysis, toxicity and risk assessment to advanced treatment technologies that jointly enables the design of sustainable solutions to each pesticide pollution problem. Moreover, we want to create the tools of information and networking for a source of collaboration between European and Latin America institutions under the framework of the environmental and human protection from pesticides. KNOWPEC will make important contributions increasing the knowledge of pesticide pollution in potable and natural waters in selected Latin America locations providing typical (or exemplary) cases of widespread agricultural practices and ecological regions. This, together with the application of knowledge from a network of experts in chemical analysis, environmental toxicity and risk assessment, and innovative water treatment technologies in training future specialists, will contribute to safeguarding drinking water supplies and providing solutions for sustainable food production, and a sustainable environment.

INEXTVIR is an innovative training and research programme that aims at providing to the next generation of young researchers unparalleled professional experiences and core competencies to resolve significant challenges across multiple disciplines in the academic, industrial and regulatory sectors. INEXTVIR proposes the use of cutting-edge Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies for studying at an unprecedented depth the virome of selected agricultural crops and ecosystems across Europe and evaluating the impact and benefits it provides at the agricultural, socio-economic and policy levels. This is a timely and exciting research field suited to and benefiting from a trans-disciplinary pan European network approach. The work will cover virus discovery, characterization and the identification of ecological factors determining the structure and dynamics of virus populations in agricultural and wild ecosystems. This is critical to understand the epidemiology of disease and will enable informed risk assessment and decision making by the scientific and regulatory communities. In addition, the different stakeholders’ risk/benefit perceptions will be assessed enabling the development of effective communication strategies. Finally, the bioinformatics work (including data classification and presentation) and NGS method development and validation will facilitate the transfer, adoption and exploitation of innovations in plant protection and routine diagnostic settings. In summary, INEXTVIR will enable the fellows to understand the wider context behind their research, which will maximize the impact of their work in contrast to conventional PhDs. Furthermore, they will receive training in transferable skills including project, people, quality and IP management, communication and presentation skills which jointly with the cross-border and cross-sectorial mobility will provide a unique opportunity for their career development and for improving their employability prospects.

Clean drinking water is crucial to human health and wellbeing. The ambition of the NaToxAq ETN network is to expand the research basis for EU’s leading role in securing high quality drinking waters for its citizens. Focus is on natural toxins – a large group of emerging contaminants with unknown impact on drinking water resources. Both known toxins, like cyanotoxins, cyanogenic glucosides and terpenes and not yet explored toxins will be investigated. Twenty leading universities, research institutions, and water enterprises will pioneer the field through joint training of 15 ESRs investigating natural toxin emission via water reservoirs to water works and consumers. The natural toxin challenge is addressed by the concerted work of the ESRs within 4 scientific work packages comprising origin, distribution, fate and remediation. Priority toxins are selected using in silico approaches accompanied by novel non-targeted and targeted analyses to map natural toxins along vegetation and climatic gradients in Europe. Invasion of alien species, toxin emission, leaching and dissipation will be under strong influence of climate change. Data collected for toxin emission, properties and fate will be used to model effects of climate, land use, and design of remediation actions. Special attention will be paid to toxin removal at water works including development of new technologies tailored to remove natural toxins. The results will contribute to strengthening of European policies and regulation of drinking water, while new business opportunities within the fields of water supply and treatment, chemical monitoring and sensing, and the consulting sector will arise from academia-indstry collaborations. The urgency of the challenge, its eminent knowledge gaps, its multifaceted and multidisciplinary nature, and the need for scientific and public awareness to be communicated by ESRs in a balanced way makes the topic ideal for a European mobility and training network.