DG JRC

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Part 1
DG JRC the European Commissions Research
Based Policy Support Organisation ECB/Croatia
Chemical InfoDays Zagreb, Croatia 11-13 December,
2006 http//www.jrc.ec.europa.eu
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Research Based Policy Support
As a Directorate General (DG) of the European
Commission, DG JRC provides scientific and
technical support to Community policy making
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The EU Institutions
Committee of the Regions
Court of Auditors
The Council of Ministers
The European Parliament
Economic and Social Committee
European Commission (the College 25
Commissioners)
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The Mission of the Joint Research Centre
is to provide customer-driven scientific and
technical support for the conception,
development, implementation and monitoring of EU
policies.
As a service of the European Commission, the JRC
functions as a reference centre of science and
technology for the Union.
Close to the policy-making process, it serves the
common interest of the Member States, while being
independent of special interests, whether private
or national.
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Implementing the Mission
in implementing its mission, DG JRC ..
depends on intensive networking with public and
private institutions in the Member States and
beyond.
DG JRC is involved in over 250 networksand
collaborative projects
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Structure of DG JRC
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WHERE ARE WE?

• Second largest lake in Italy
• Altitude 194 m above s.l
• Length 66 km (IT CH)
• Width max. 10 km
• Width med. 3.9 km
• Area 212.5 km²
• Volume 37.5 km³
• Coastline 170 km
• Max. depth 370 m
• Avg. depth 176 m
• Water RT 4 Years

Ispra Site
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The Ispra site

• Third biggest Commission site after Brussels and
  Luxemburg
• 160 hectares
• 36 km of roads
• 6 km perimeters of fencing
• 140 heated buildings
• 1600 staff
• 1000 core staff
• 600 visiting staff
• 200 staff of external organizations /
  contractors
• 200 daily visitors

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DG JRC Work Programme 2003-2006
Budget Breakdown (M)
Institutional budget for 4 years FP6 EC
Programme (M) 760 Euratom Programme
(M) 290 Total DG JRC (M) 1050

• Complemented by competitive earnings (10-15)
• funded work from other Commission services
• third party work
• participation in FP6 Indirect Actions

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DG JRC Work Programme 2003-2006
Food, Chemicals, and Health (food safety
quality, food chain consumer protection, GMOs,
chemical products, alternative testing methods,
biomedical technologies, health
environment) Environment and Sustainability (air,
water soil quality, land resources,
sustainability issues, climate change, ecosystem
monitoring, energy technologies) Nuclear Safety
and Security (waste treatment storage, nuclear
non-proliferation, reactor safety, radiation
monitoring, basic actinide research) ST
Foresight (technology techno-economic
foresight, statistical methods for analysis of
economic indicators) Reference Materials and
Measurements (reference materials methods,
certified reference materials, radionuclide
metrology, neutron data measurements) Public
Security and Antifraud (antifraud technologies,
cybersecurity, technological natural
emergencies, humanitarian aid)
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DG JRC contribution to ERA
Realising objectives and delivering high-quality
results via strong partnerships with public and
private organisations in the Member States and
Candidate Countries
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DG JRC contribution to ERA

• Common scientific reference systems
• identify provide reference materials and
  measurements
• Networking
• strategic collaborations via e.g. flagship NoE,
  links with high-quality network partners
• Training and mobility of researchers
• promotion of research training opportunities,
  increase mobility of research staff
• Broadening access to infrastructures
• increased awareness, hosting of researchers
• Support to Enlargement Integration

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DG JRC and Enlargement

• Strategic Objectives
• To help the new Member States (EU10) and the
  Candidate Countries in dealing faster and
  efficiently with the EU acquis in areas of DG
  JRC competence
• To contribute to the development of the
  European Research Area

• Main Target
• To achieve full working involvement between the
  Candidate Countries, the EU-10 Member States and
  DG JRC, consistent with the level enjoyed by the
  EU-15 Member States

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Working for the DG JRC

• DG JRC Staff
• Policy of attracting bright and able scientists
• Multi-national skills and talents
• Scientific and cultural diversity
• Interested in working with DG JRC?
• Email JRC-recruitment_at_ec.europa.eu
• Web http//www.jrc.ec.europa.eu

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Institute of Health and Consumer Protection
DG Joint Research Centre
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The DG Joint Research Centre (JRC) and its
Institute for Health and Consumer Protection
(IHCP)
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is
the European Unions scientific and technical
research laboratory and an integral part of the
European Commission. The JRC provides the
scientific and technical know-how to support EU
policies.
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The Institute for Health and Consumer Protection

• The mission of the IHCP is to provide scientific
  support to the development and implementation of
  EU policies related to health and consumer
  protection. The IHCP carries out research to
  improve the understanding of potential health
  risks posed by
• chemicals
• genetically modified organisms
• contaminants released from food contact materials
  and consumer products.

http//ihcp.jrc.cec.eu.int
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Working Areas of IHCP

• Chemicals
• Environment Health
• GMOs
• Alternatve Testing Methods
• In Vitro
• In silico
• Bio-Sensors
• Nano-toxicology

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Development and validation of methods for
detection, identification and quantification of
GMOs.
BGMOs Unit(Biotechnology GMOs) Guy VAN DEN
EEDE
BMS Unit(Biomedical Materials and
Systems) Hermann STAMM
Development of methods and materials to ensure
safety, quality and reliability of medical
devices and biomedical systems (development and
application of (bio)sensors).
ECB Unit(European Chemicals Bureau) Steven
EISENREICH
Integrated Risk Assessment, CL/GHS, biocides,
testing methods, QSARs/ITS, REACH,
Nano-Toxicology,
ECVAM Unit (Validation of Alternative
Methods) Thomas HARTUNG
Reduction of animal testing by looking for
alternatives with in vitro techniques.
PCE Unit(Physical Chemical Exposure) Dimitrios
KOTZIAS
Evaluation and quantification of human exposure
and risk assessments from environmental
stressors.
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Examples of Achievements

• Support to EU Chemical Policy (REACH ), risk
  assessment reports for priority chemicals, QSARs

• REACH Implementation Projects, Tools for IND and
  ECHA, MS

• ENGL The European Network of GMOs laboratories
  (74 EU official laboratories)

• First EC Community Reference Laboratories CRL
  on GM food and feed. New CRL on contact materials
  in 2006

• Validated alternative methods for in vitro tests
• Application of biosensors for toxicological
• endpoint detection

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End of Part 1
DG JRC the European Commissions Research
Based Policy Support Organisation ECB/Croatia
Chemical InfoDays Zagreb, Croatia 11-13 December,
2006 http//www.jrc.ec.europa.eu
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Part 2
The European Chemicals Bureau provides technical
and scientific support for implementation of
certain EU legislation on dangerous chemicals and
the preparation for REACH
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European Chemicals Bureau
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THE EUROPEAN CHEMICALS BUREAU Commission
communication to the Council and the European
Parliament(93/C 1/02)
Established in 1993

• Statement
• The Commission wishes to inform the Council and
  the Parliament that it has established, within
  the Joint Research Centre (JRC), Environment
  Institute, at Ispra, a special unit THE EUROPEAN
  CHEMICALS BUREAU dedicated to undertaking certain
  of the scientific/technical tasks required of the
  Commission in the context of certain pieces of
  Community legislation relating to the control of
  chemicals.

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Short description of the work to be carried out
by the European Chemicals Bureau

• Directive 67/548/EEC (as amended for the seventh
  time by Directive 92/32/EEC) on the
  classification, packaging and labelling of
  dangerous substances
• - scientific and technical support activities
  associated with the adaptation of Annexes I to IX
  to the Directive to scientific and technical
  progress,
• - scientific and technical support activities
  associated with the implementation of the new
  chemicals notification scheme (Articles 17, 18
  and 21 of the Directive),
• - scientific issues related to the Commission
  Directive on the risk assessment of new chemicals
  including the development and updating of
  scientific guidance documents,
• - technical competence for the European inventory
  of existing commercial chemical substances
  (EINECS).
• Council Regulation on the evaluation and control
  of existing chemical substances (to be adopted by
  the Council in March 1993)
• - collection of data submitted by industry
  (Articles 3 and 4),
• - to establish and maintain the European
  chemicals information data-base (Euclid) and to
  ensure the dissemination of information on
  existing chemicals within the Commission to the
  Member States and to the general public (Articles
  6 and 17),
• - scientific and technical support activities
  related to the preparation of lists of priority
  chemicals and the drawing up of agreed risk
  assessments on these priority chemicals (Articles
  8 and 11 of the Regulation).
• Council Regulation (EEC) No 2455/92 concerning
  the export and import of certain dangerous
  chemicals
• - scientific and technical support activities
  related to the implementation of the Regulation
  and in particular the provision of up-to-date
  scientific and technical information on banned or
  restricted chemicals.

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The European Chemicals Bureau 2006 ? 2007
SUPCHEM Support to Chemicals Legislation
RefineRisk Integrated Risk Assessment of
Chemicals
GlobCHEM Global Chemical Data Management and
Harmonization
CompuTERM Computational Toxicology and
Environmental Risk Modelling
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Actions in FP6 year 2006
1311 Assessment of Chemicals New and Existing
Chemicals Biocides, Classification and
Labeling, Testing Methods Export/Import
Legal basis Directive 67/548/EEC Class
Label, Notification, Testing Methods Directive
93/67/EEC Risk Assessment New
Substances Directive 98/8/EC Biocidal
Products Regulation 2455/92 Export/Import
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Actions in FP6 2006
1313 REACH Support to future chemicals
legislation and the adoption and Implementation
process of the REACH legislation

• ECB delivers technical and scientific support to
  REACH implementation overall coordinator of TGD
  preparation
• Refocusing of current activities to prepare for
  REACH
• General support on request (from DG ENV and ENTR)
• RIP projects Technical Guidance for IND, MS and
  ECHA

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Actions in FP6 2006
1314 REACH-IT Informatics (new in 2006)
Chemical databases, IT for registration,
workflow for dossiers, global portal for
sharing data
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Actions in FP6 2006
1321 Computational Toxicology (QSARs)
Development, validation and implementation of
(Q)SARs and other estimation methods for the
assessment of chemicals
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Additional tasks within the current legislation

• Support to the EU policies on traded chemicals
• European Customs Inventory of Chemical Substances
  (ECICS database)

2. PBTs, POPs, Implementation of protocols
(UN agreement) existing substances, PPP, Biocides
3. Export/Import Implementation of the
Rotterdam Convention/Customs Controls on
Hazardous Materials
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Research Activities

• Risk Assessment Methodologies
• Human Health
• Environmental Health (Aquatic inland/marine and
  terrestrial)
• Endocrine disruptors

• (Q)SAR development,
• OSIRIS - Optimized Strategies for Risk Assessment
  of Chemicals based on Intelligent Testing,
• Coordinated by UFZ
• 10M Euros over 4 years
• JRC-ECB and JRC-ECVAM are participants

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ECB Now (1)

• ECB today is the focal point for collecting and
  disseminating information on new and existing
  chemicals in the EU
• ECB provides scientific and technical support to
  the conception, development, implementation and
  monitoring of EU policies on dangerous chemicals
  risk assessments
• ECB provides scientific support to key chemical
  questions at interface between science policy
• Example DecaBDE (and its substitutes)

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ECB Now (2)

• development and harmonization of test methods
  (EU, international-OECD)
• classification and labeling of substances
• management of scientifically-sound risk
  assessment of chemical substances in EU
• notification of new substances
• authorization of biocides (Biocidal Products
  Directive)
• information exchange on import and export of
  dangerous substances Customs-relevant tools
• scientific, technical and coordinating support to
  the development and harmonization of test methods
  and (Q)SAR models

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ECB Now (3)

• hosts the major EU databases such as EISIS,
  EINECS, IUCLID4, EDEXIM, and NCD
• hosts, develops and applies the EUSES and EURAM
  models on environmental risk assessment and
  prioritization of chemicals, resp.
• ECB Web Page hits gt 5000-6000 hits a day
• REACH, RIPs, IT tools
• support to the conception and development of the
  new regulation
• coordination, scientific development, TGDs
• tools for industry (e.g., IUCLID5)
• ECHA development of its central information
  system (REACH-IT)
• training
• dissemination of information and practice

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ECB 2007 (4)

• Focus on Integrated Risk Assessment
• Science, science-policy interface, harmonization
• REACH/ECHA Support/Training, Agency recruits, and
  others esp. in CC
• Global Harmonised System (GHS) for Classification
  of Dangerous Chemicals
• Data management systems Further Development and
  Application (IUCLID5, EU database on intrinsic
  properties of nanoparticles, biocides)
• Nanotoxicology (risk assessment, intrinsic
  properties, data management, science-policy
  interface, nano-toxicology)
• (Q)SARs (toolbox, decision support system,
  regulatory acceptance, EDCs)
• Test methods (Harmonized at EU and OECD levels)
  ITS
• Environmental Quality Standards (PS in WFD)

GOAL to be at the nexus of Integrated Risk
Assessment of Chemicals in the EU
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The European Chemicals Bureau - WP 2007
SUPCHEM Support to Chemicals Legislation
RefineRisk Integrated Risk Assessment of
Chemicals
GlobCHEM Global Chemical Data Management and
Harmonization
CompuTERM Computational Toxicology and
Environmental Risk Modelling
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Support to Enlargement and Integration

• Strategic Objectives
• To help the AC / CC in dealing faster with the
  EU acquis in areas of JRC competence
• To contribute to the development of the
  European Research Area

• Main Target
• To achieve full working involvement between the
  AC/CCs and the JRC, consistent with the level
  enjoyed by EU Member States

• Actions Training
• IUCLID and EUSES
• Current Chemical Policy
• QSARs
• REACH (New Chemicals Policy)

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What now for ECB?
Classification Labeling
New Chemicals/ Existing Chemcials
Support to REACH Implementation TGD via
RIPs IUCLID5
Current Activities
Chemical Databases
Biocides
Import-Export
Risk Assessment of Chemicals Test Methods
Computational Toxicology (QSARs)
http//ecb.jrc.it
Training on New Chemical Policy
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ECHA European Chemicals Agency EiF May 2007 EiO
May 2008
Classification Labeling
New Chemicals/ Existing Chemicals
Future Activities
Chemical Databases
Support to REACH Implementation ECHA, COM
Biocides
http//ecb.jrc.it
Import-Export
Integrated Risk Assessment Methodology Nano-Toxi
cology IUCLID5 GHS (Q)SARs
Chemical Risk Assessment Test Methods
ITS - Computational Toxicology (QSARs)
Training on New Chemical Policy
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ECB Website http//ecb.jrc.it
Thank you for your attention!