SETAC Europe Annual Meeting 2027

Acknowledging the increased focus on 'mission-oriented' research being promoted by funding agencies all over Europe, and why it often fails in addressing complex problems, Janet Hering will introduce us to the concept of 'actionable research.' Actionable research is intended to be useful in informing environmental policy and practice. As this is the goal of a lot of the science performed and used by SETAC members, we very much look forward to hearing about this topic. Hering navigates through an environment of science, policy needs, and an ever-changing funding landscape daily as a director of Eawag and professor at ETHZ and EPFL.

Persistent and Mobile Organic Compounds (PMOCs) are emerging pollutants in the environment that have only been rarely detected in previous years due to the lack of analytical techniques available for their analysis. Historically, we have been focusing on persistent organic pollutants which bioaccumulate and biomagnify up through the food chain, as is the case for most of the compounds regulated through the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Recent developments in analytical techniques reveal a wealth of persistent water-soluble compounds, of which the fluorinated compounds are in the regulatory spotlight worldwide. Hans Peter Arp is leading the European Horizon 2020 project 'ZeroPM,' which just started in the autumn of 2021 and aims to prevent, prioritize and remove persistent, mobile substances. Arp, who is an experienced researcher with background in analytical chemistry and experience in working with persistent pollutants, will discuss the opportunities, uncertainties and challenges of working with PMOCs.

The topic of this year’s SETAC Europe meeting in Copenhagen is 'Towards a reduced pollution society.' But how do we get there? The EU chemical strategy for sustainable use of chemicals is a very important tool in getting us in the right direction. We are therefore very pleased that Christina de Avila, head of the Sustainable Chemicals Unit of the European Commission’s Environment Directorate, will give a keynote talk on this strategy. de Avila has been in charge of drafting the commission’s strategy for sustainability and is now working on its implementation. We are looking very much forward to hearing about the thoughts behind the strategy and the work of implementing it in Europe.

Going through the sessions and abstracts for this year’s SETAC Europe meeting, plastic pollution was one of the most abundant topics, now encompassing sessions throughout all four days of the conference. Considering the large interest in plastic pollution, we thought it would be interesting if we could get someone from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation working on plastic pollution and how to solve the problems of the future to give a keynote lecture. Luckily, George McLoughlin, working as a research analyst in the New Plastics Economy Initiative’s innovation team, has agreed to give a keynote on how the global plastic packaging economy can be changed from a linear to a circular economy model. We look very much forward to hearing about solutions to the ever-accumulating plastics, causing so many problems, particularly in the oceans of the world.