NaToxAq at the EU REA Clean Water Cluster Event

by Carina Schönsee (ESR9) and Regiane Natumi (ESR10)

The Horizon 2020 MSCA-ITN Cluster event “Clean Water” was held at the Institut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua (ICRA) in Girona on 22^nd October 2019. The event meant to strengthen exchange between scientists and policy makers was a day packed with interesting science presented in 30 different presentations. During a talk by two members of the EU Directorate-General for Environment we gained a valuable insight on recent EU water policy developments and learned about their view on pressing research needs in the water sector. It was very inspirational to hear about other ITNs achievements but also reassuring to hear about the struggles we all share. There are certainly many interesting topics currently under scrutiny all over Europe and it was great to hear that we are not the only project considering natural compounds as potential threats to the quality of our water resources. Hans-Christian set the stage with his presentation of the NaToxAq family and our common goals and progress, before Regiane and Carina were able to share experiences and exciting results in a presentation each. There were several questions from the audience that showed that we are certainly working on a very divisive topic. In a final discussion round we all agreed that when it comes to mixtures and natural compounds we could learn a lot from food safety policies. However, when it comes to policy making, science should get more focus and researchers and policy makers need to listen to each other a lot more to tackle challenges today and in the future.

Check Twitter for all updates and more pictures from the event: #CleanWaterITN (https://twitter.com/hashtag/CleanWaterITN?src=hash)