Considering the growing transport demand and dependence on oil, collective and immediate actions must be taken to abate emissions and mitigate their environmental and health impacts. Very fine particles emissions, and the formation of secondary aerosols through atmospheric processing, are believed to be the pollutant with the greatest public health impact, even if there is a major knowledge gap concerning their atmospheric behaviour (e.g. mechanism/contribution to smog episodes). AEROSOLS is a 36-months timely, ambitious, and interdisciplinary project with aim to define robust and transparent measurement and modelling methodologies to quantify the currently disregarded volatile/semi-volatile (V/S-V) primary and secondary emissions, and their associated risks. Furthermore, technological and legislative monitoring/abating mechanisms will be proposed to control these emissions in order to help improve air quality and public health. This will be achieved by: - quantifying V/S-V emissions formation, abatement, and dynamics within the vehicle system under real-driving-emissions (RDE) testing conditions on roads and in labs utilising innovative instrumentations and methodologies; - characterising secondary aerosol formation and atmospheric evolution mechanisms employing advanced instrumentations (e.g. for particles as small as 1nm), methodologies, and modelling to provide scientific evidence of the precursors’ role; - categorising (‘taxonomising’) and prioritising (assisted by Artificial Intelligence) primary and secondary emissions compounds based on their health impact (by employing in vitro/vivo testing), environmental/social life-cycle-assessment, and risk. Advocacy information will be provided to the stakeholders and legislation/policy makers and proposals will be made for improving the standards/regulations, and consequently the air quality. The support of stakeholders and partners will accelerate the transition to a cleaner and climate-neutral society/economy.

The overall aim of TerraChem is to develop, demonstrate and apply a novel systems approach integrating monitoring, environmental modelling, data management, analytical tools and user guidance to better understand exposure of terrestrial biota across trophic levels (from soil and soil water to plants to primary and secondary consumers to apex species) in Europe to the universe of environmentally-relevant anthropogenic chemicals and their damage on terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services, with a view to enabling more efficient environmental risk assessment of chemicals in the terrestrial compartment and more effective prevention and mitigation, accelerating achievement of the EU’s zero pollution ambition. TerraChem’s objectives are: (1) To understand routes of exposure to chemicals in wildlife, including routes and extent of trophic transfer, for selected food chains (from soil and soil water to plants, primary and secondary consumers and apex species) in representative terrestrial ecosystems. (2) To model source-to-receptor pathways of selected chemical contaminants for terrestrial ecosystems, and link organism and species effects to damage on genetic and functional diversity and on relevant ecosystem services. (3) To develop tools and guidance for regulatory and practice uptake of TerraChem research and innovation output to optimise current environmental risk assessment of chemicals and improve risk management measures, and thereby reduce chemical damage to terrestrial biodiversity; and (4) To refine the TerraChem conceptual framework, ensure integration of monitoring (under objective 1), modelling (objective 2) and prevention and mitigation (objective 3), ensure coherence with related project, platform, partnership and policy/regulatory initiatives and pertinence for key end-users, and develop a TerraChem Data Management System and TerraChem Dashboard as a One-Stop Shop for data on contaminants in terrestrial biodiversity in Europe.

The central aim of the proposed Source to Sea (NAPSEA) CSA is to support national and local authorities in selecting effective nutrient load reduction measures and to gain political support for the implementation. The consortium partners have been closely involved in applied research and implementation of nutrient reduction measures at local, national and European level. In NAPSEA the current challenges to reduce nutrient pollution, eutrophication and its negative impacts on inland and coastal waters and their ecosystem services will be addressed by an integrated approach addressing nutrient pollution from river source to sea, using the Rhine and Elbe Rivers-North Sea coastal system as case study and integrating three complementary perspectives: governance, nutrient pathways & measures, and ecosystem health. Each of these perspectives provide an essential part of the solution to achieving a healthy ecosystem with measures that are societally acceptable and cost-effective. We will identify options to reach a harmonized approach in nutrient reduction measures across different geographical areas and policy frameworks (governance), select and evaluate nutrient reduction scenarios with an integrated modelling framework from source to sea (nutrient pathways) and define safe ecological boundaries for different types of ecosystems along the continuum from catchment to coast (ecosystem health). NAPSEA will showcase the best practices and consider obstacles on the implementation of socially acceptable, sustainable and effective measures for several local case studies within this geographical scope, also taking into account effects of climate change. These case studies accommodate the variability in potential threats of eutrophication as well as feasibility, effectiveness and implementation of potential measures to represent different ecosystem types, with varying eutrophication symptoms, and address different socio-economic and governance scales from local to European level.

TOWARDS A SYSTEM BASED, HOLISTIC ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT OF CHEMICALS (SYBERAC) Biodiversity is key to modern society, sustaining natural resources and providing essential ecosystem services. According to the UN Sustainable Development goals, the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity strategy and other European and national level Directives and strategic regulations, pollution is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss. The risks resulting from the use, release and effects of chemical on the environment is addressed in a plethora of EU-level Directives and regulatory strategies, each with specific (chemical) targets and protection aims. There is, however, concern that such a fragmented approach does alleviate the threats of chemicals to biodiversity and ecosystem services. To protect genetic and functional biodiversity from pollution impacts, a paradigm shift is needed. This transformation should move beyond the current fragmented Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) performed in specific regulatory silos, e.g., Plant Protection Products (PPPs)regulation for pesticides, REACH for industrial chemicals and Biocides framework for Biocidal chemicals, towards a harmonised and systems-based ERA applicable to all chemicals, species and land use functions. To make this advance, SYBERAC will provide ways forward to rationalise the current silo-based Protection Goals into high-level system-based Protection Goals and to operationalise their use within systems-based ERA robust and broadly applicable ERA structures. Six case studies, overarching different silos of current ERA will provide proof-of-concepts of the developed approaches. Based on targeted stakeholder engagement, in close cooperation with other relevant projects on the topic, results and outcomes will be disseminated towards a wide audience, including national and EU level regulatory institutions, industrial partners but also land managers, farmers and conservation bodies.

The main objective of GreenEO is to provide improved satellite-based environmental information to support sustainable nature protection practices across four competing land-use areas: cities, agricultural areas, forests, and ecosystems. Through combined exploitation of new Earth Observation products, digital infrastructure, and atmospheric and land surface models using machine learning and data assimilation, GreenEO will provide environmental information and stakeholder engagement practices to support the implementation of the Zero Pollution (ZP) and Biodiversity aspects of the European Green Deal (EGD). The project will serve as a proof-of-concept to enhance specific services provided by Copernicus and EUMETSAT in support of the EGD implementation. GreenEO aims to support the transition towards more sustainable land use practices in Europe and proposes a transformative governance system, relying on a data value chain enhanced with active stakeholder engagement and co-creation. The value chain proposes the uptake of satellite data, integrated in a modelling development chain and followed by value creation modelling applications. In cities, GreenEO will develop three satellite-based approaches of high-resolution urban-scale air quality maps to engage relevant stakeholders to support the ZP strategies. For agriculture, GreenEO will address impacts on nitrogen emissions, deposition, and biodiversity. It will create satellite-based high-resolution emission inventories, deposition, critical load exceedance maps, and identify areas with high recovery potential. GreenEO will develop a forest fire service that will revolutionize the monitoring of wildfires over Europe. GreenEO will create novel ecosystem monitoring indicators such as city greening indicators, ecosystem area and condition indicators. GreenEO will advance seamless climate-weather and environmental services in Europe, by proactive links to EUMETSAT, WMO, the Copernicus Services, EEA and EU Missions.