Hypatia will bring about lasting change in the way schools, science museums, research institutions and industry engage teenage girls in STEM across Europe. Bringing these stakeholders together with gender experts and teenagers themselves, Hypatia will develop, pilot and disseminate a unique modular toolkit of activities and guidelines for engaging teenagers in STEM in a gender-inclusive way. These innovative activities, based on existing European good practices, will be implemented in 14 EU countries and further afield, in schools, science museums and by institutions in research and industry, thanks to hubs of stakeholders strengthened through the project. The activities will have a central focus on gender-inclusive ways of communicating STEM, empowering teenage girls and exploring the range of skills that are needed for the great variety of STEM studies and careers open to young people. The Hypatia hubs will provide a sustainable basis for these activities to be carried out on the long term, with a focus on dissemination through networks and stakeholder engagement allowing the project impact to multiply.

ERGO presents a new approach that will support a paradigm shift in the regulatory use of standardized test guidelines (TGs) by breaking the existing wall between mammalian and non-mammalian vertebrate testing and assessment of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The highly conserved thyroid system will be used as the “proof of concept”, but also other conserved endocrine axes/systems such as the Retinoid X Receptor (RXR) and the Hypothalamus Pituitary Gonadal (HPG) axis can be adapted to the cross-vertebrate class approach. ERGO will investigate a battery of draft in vitro assays and evaluate thyroid-responsive biomarkers and endpoints (B/E) suitable for extrapolation of effects from fish and amphibian tests to humans and other mammals (and vice versa) and finally validate successful B/E for inclusion in existing in vivo or new in vitro OECD TGs. A cross-class adverse outcome pathway (AOP) network will provide the scientifically plausible and evidence-based foundation for the selection of B/E in lower vertebrate assays predictive of human health outcomes. In silico modeling and biotransformation data will support cross-vertebrate class effect extrapolation. Major outcomes of ERGO will be: 1) New thyroid-related B/E for inclusion in OECD TGs for improved identification of TDC. 2) An Integrated Approach to Testing and Assessment (IATA) of chemicals for TD based on a multi-class vertebrate AOP network connecting endocrine mechanisms in one vertebrate class to adverse outcomes in another class for safer regulation of EDCs. 3) A tool for TG end users, such as regulators and industry, to extrapolate thyroid effects between vertebrate classes. Implementation of the ERGO IATA strategy in regulations of EDC will make hazard and risk assessment faster, cheaper, simpler and safer and support industry in the development of EDC-free products beneficial for environmental and human safety.

The vision of the RISK-HUNT3R consortium is to develop a reliable, efficient and cost-effective chemical safety assessment approach. It will be based entirely on non-animal methods and provide improved protection of the human population against systemic health effects caused by (chronic) chemical exposure. The major innovation provided by RISK-HUNT3R is a complete and truly human-centric risk assessment strategy. RISK-HUNT3R will establish, optimize and assemble all essential safety testing elements: exposure assessment, information on chemical distribution in the body, hazard characterization, adverse outcome prediction and determination of actual risk in defined scenarios. RISK-HUNT3R integrates cutting-edge in silico (computational) and in vitro (experimental testing) technologies. Human (disease) genetics and exposome data will ensure anchoring of test results to the human situation. The project will ensure regulatory relevance by testing the applicability of the critical test systems integrated in the next generation risk assessment strategy. The ambitious overall deliverable will be a comprehensive computational framework for the prediction of human adverse outcomes, and a set of stringently evaluated assays to feed the required data into this framework. RISK-HUNT3R will engage with all key stakeholders from different industry sectors and international regulatory agencies to critically evaluate and warrant genuine acceptance of the novel safety testing framework. This unique interaction of these key stakeholders working together on real-world case studies, will result in a ready-to-apply strategy to ensure societal protection against hazardous chemicals fully in concordance with the European Commission’s “Green Deal”. Importantly, the project will push commercial exploitation of the validated safety assessment approaches, thereby ensuring sustainability of the project outcomes and fortifying the innovation capacity of the industry sectors involved.