News & events

The February edition of the JRC Newsletter has been published and can be downloaded here. It features an editorial from Enrico Predazzi, Chairman of ESOF 2010, on the preparation of this conference that will take place in Torino on July. This month's issue also contains an account of the annual JRC Excellence Awards ceremony, news on JRC's support to the relief efforts in Haiti, on international collaboration for early warning systems and from the European Solar Test Installation, new data on persistent organic pollutants and much more.

The deadline for registration to participate in the Policy Forum of the European Conference on Corporate Research and Development (CONCORD-2010), focussing on Corporate R&D – An engine for growth, a challenge for European policy, to be held in Seville, Spain on 4 March 2010 has been extended to 15 February. This conference, organised by the JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) and the Spanish Centre for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) in close collaboration with the Commission's Directorate-Generals Research and Enterprise and Industry, is one of the highlights of the Spanish EU Presidency Programme in the fields of research and innovation.

The JRC's Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) has provided input to the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released by Yale and Columbia University at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, 27-31 January 2010 in Davos. With its expertise on composite indicators and sensitivity analysis, the JRC-IPSC has contributed to the EPI by evaluating the uncertainties underlying the index and the sensitivity of the country rankings to the methodological choices made during the development of the Index. This is the third edition of the EPI, which has been revisited biannually since 2006 with the collaboration of JRC-IPSC.

The current EU chemicals legislation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances) and the related guidance documents apply to, but do not specifically address nanomaterials. Therefore, the European Commission's Directorate General for Environment requested the JRC Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP) to coordinate three projects to develop advice for possible future modifications in the REACH guidance documents. The new projects deal with Substance Identification, Information Requirements and Chemical Safety Assessment. The projects' steering group consists of the JRC, the Commission's Directorates General for Environment and for Enterprise & Industry as well as the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The final output of the projects will be considered by ECHA, responsible for potential REACH guidance updates.

Today, the European Parliament budgetary committee gave the green light for the construction of two new buildings at the JRC's Ispra site. The EP's positive opinion, following that of the Council, effectively clears the way towards the signature of the construction contract in the coming weeks, allowing works to start shortly afterwards. This project is probably the largest infrastructure effort at Ispra ever since the construction of the Ispra-1 and ESSOR reactors some 50 years ago. The new buildings should accommodate, from 2012 on, about 400 staff of the Institutes for Environment and Sustainability (IES) and for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP). They will be erected simultaneously in the heart of the so-called future "science zone", and will provide a net surface area of 10,000 square metres for offices, laboratories and meeting space.

Measurements of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) were carried out by the JRC's Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) within the framework of the environmental assessment of European waste and sustainable use of resources. Emission factors were provided for POPs' from three specific activities in developing countries, where no data had previously been available: brick production, open cooking with biomass and the use of simple stoves. A study on the impact of brick production on nearby soil quality was also included. Final reporting will be made through EU reports, which will be published on the webpage of the Stockholm Convention Secretariat.