In Europe, more than 70% of the population lives in urban areas. Cities have long been known to be society’s predominant engine of innovation and wealth creation, yet they are also a main source of pollution, disease and mortality, which is to some extent linked to suboptimal urban and transport planning practices. The proposed work aims to improve the estimation of health impacts and socio-economic costs and/or benefits of environmental stressors, advance methodological approaches and foster their acceptance as common good practice for urban areas, to help strengthen evidence-based policy making at city, national and EU level. We will focus on nearly 1000 cities and environmental stressors including air pollution, noise, temperature/heat and lack of green space but we will also include physical activity as a main determinant of health and examine the effects of gender and inequality in the impact estimations. We aim to produce a system that will provide updates every 3 years to be able to monitor progress. It will extensively involve stakeholders and conduct knowledge translation. We will use transdisciplinary and systemic approaches bringing together a team of, amongst others, experts and practitioners in urban and transport planning, environment and public health, economics, retail and business, education sector, policy analysis, knowledge translation and involve citizens and NGOs.

The proliferation of exposome research programs and projects has led to a significant increase in research output and to the establishment of new initiatives and infrastructures in Europe and globally. Yet, cooperation between initiatives at the EU level and globally is still sporadic and scattered. The IHEN Project aims to establish an International Human Exposome Network (IHEN) with the overall purpose of improving global research and cooperation on the exposome. It proposes an ambitious pathway towards the development of a longer term IHEN that brings together multi-sectorial stakeholders globally, which is essential for enhancing the impact of future exposome research. Specific objectives are to: 1) design the organisational structure of IHEN so that it serves to strengthen cooperation and coordination of exposome research in Europe and foster and align cooperation globally, including options for long-term governance and financing; 2) identify and make available exposome tools, metadata and resources at the global scale in a FAIR toolbox, including tool inventories and data catalogues; 3) test the FAIR toolbox via a series of demonstrator projects; 4) develop a roadmap for future exposome research and innovation, including the formulation of an operational definition of exposome research and an interim research agenda; and 5) effectively communicate and disseminate the IHEN Project results to a wide community of stakeholders, and develop an inventory of exposome training opportunities. The project will interact, in all stages of the work, with key stakeholders’ groups: EU and global exposome researchers, initiatives and infrastructures; EU, national, and international agencies and organisations; funding bodies; civil society organisations; and industry.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are substances that alter the function of the endocrine system and negatively affect human and animal health. In recent decades, there has been a significant increase in, for example, reproductive disorders and gender incongruence, along with a decline in fertility rates, all of which may be linked to EDC exposure. The EU has highlighted EDCs as substances of high concern and aims to minimise exposure of humans and the environment by improving regulation and policy. Yet there remain important gaps in our understanding of the impact of exposures at critical life stages and the tools for identification and ultimately regulation of EDCs. The MERLON project addresses these gaps, bringing together world-leading experts in endocrinology, chemical safety assessment, developmental and molecular biology, epidemiology, toxicogenomics, toxicokinetics modelling, regulatory toxicology, psychology, psychiatry and research ethics. We will investigate EDC-mediated effects on sexual development, providing human data on the role of EDC exposure during fetal development and changes in mini-puberty, connecting to puberty, reproductive function, and gender incongruence using existing biobanks and cohorts. MERLON will apply and develop 3R-compliant New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) focusing on sexual development and function and the effects of EDCs thereon. Our cutting-edge approaches incorporate transcriptomics, pharmacokinetic models, biomarker identification and the use of Adverse Outcome Pathways, which we will utilize to develop a roadmap for EDC identification, making the best use of NAMs into the future. With MERLON, we will engage EU risk assessment bodies, public health authorities, regulators, scientists and researchers, healthcare providers and citizens. This will ensure all relevant stakeholders have the evidence they need to minimize EDC exposure and support effective and evidence-based regulations and policies.

The POLYRISK project aims unraveling the risks of microplastic and nanoplastic particles (MNP) that are ubiquitous in our environment and are likely to be entering the human body via inhalation and ingestion. The most bioavailable low-micron and nano-sized MNP, pose the biggest analytical challenges or today’s analytical chemists. Existing knowledge about the adverse pro-inflammatory effects of airborne particulate matter and nanoparticles, combined with pro-inflammatory evidence of MNP exposure observed in animal models and in vitro pilot tests with human immune cells, suggests that MNP may cause immunotoxicity in humans. Occupational exposure of workers to fibrous MNP can indeed lead to granulomatous lesions, causing respiratory irritation, functional abnormalities and flock worker’s lung. Currently, human health risk assessment protocols specific to MNP are not available and key data is missing. This hampers science-based decision making. On this backdrop, POLYRISK’s human risk assessment strategy will combine highly advanced sampling, sample pretreatment and analytical methods to detect MNP in complex matrices, up-to-date fit-for-purpose hazard assessment technologies and multiple real-life human exposure scenarios. We will focus on key toxic events linked to several chronic inflammatory diseases. The consortium uniquely brings together interdisciplinary experience and know-how on quality-controlled chemical analyses of MNP and additives, intestinal and respiratory toxicity models, human exposure epidemiology, immunotoxicology and real-life high-exposure studies. POLYRISK’s novel human risk assessment strategy is based on mechanistic reasoning and pragmatically accommodates the complexity of the MNP toxicant class. Building with ground-breaking science, stakeholder engagement and strong communication, POLYRISK aims to rapidly reduce current MNP risk uncertainties and support EU efforts to ensure public health is adequately protected from the potential risks of MNP pollution. POLYRISK is a part of the European cluster on Health Impacts of Micro- and Nanoplastics.

Despite clear signs that the impacts of climate change are escalating, the global response has been inadequate. Traditional scientific efforts have fallen short of providing knowledge and tools that have been broadly applied in decision-making, and innovative approaches to knowledge translation are needed. To catalyse climate action in Europe to protect public health, our overarching goal is to provide new knowledge, data, and tools on: i) the relationships between changes in environmental hazards caused by climate change, ecosystems, and human health; ii) the health co-benefits of climate action; iii) the role of health evidence in decision making; and iv) the societal implications of climate change for health systems. This will be achieved through five specific objectives: 1) to develop an integrated indicator framework and repository to track the status of health-relevant outcomes of climate actions; 2) to quantify the health co-benefits and full social and environmental costs and benefits resulting from mitigation measures outside of the health sector; 3) to develop innovative surveillance and forecasting tools that facilitate effective response to environmental health hazards (e.g. heat stress, allergenic pollen) caused by climate change and the design, monitoring and evaluation of interventions to mitigate climate change; 4) to investigate how stakeholders engage with evidence regarding the health impacts of climate change, and to develop strategies and tools to facilitate engagement; and 5) to provide evidence and training on the most effective strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation for health systems, with specific focus on vulnerable populations including those occupationally exposed to hazards induced by climate change. CATALYSE is a powerful, interdisciplinary consortium with a mission to further develop and communicate evidence of the health impacts of climate change and respond to the urgent need for solutions. CATALYSE is part of the European cluster on climate change and health (name and acronym to be decided).