NORMAN General Assembly meeting 2024

December 3, 2024 | 9h00-18h00 CET

December 4, 2024 | 9h00-13h00 CET



About this event

The General Assembly meeting is the annual event where over 90+ NORMAN member organisations come together to discuss ongoing activities and share their visions for future science-to-policy initiatives.

We extend a warm invitation for you to join this unmissable annual gathering in an exciting and informal atmosphere on 3-4 December in Rome.

Venue & Accommodation

Agenda

3 December 2024 – Day 1

From 08h30 to 20h00 (CET)

08h30 – 09h00

Registration and coffee
 09h00 – 09h30

Opening and Welcome
  • 09h00 – 09h10: Welcome by the host
  • 09h10 – 09h30: Welcome by the Chairman, Jaroslav Slobodnik
  • 09h10 – 09h30: Round table of participants
  • 09h10 – 09h30: Approval of the agenda
 09h30 – 11h00

Working Groups Highlights (Chairs: Juliane and Jaro)

Pitch presentations, 10 min per WG + 5 min questions on the essential points: achievements and future plans (extensive time will be devoted in the World Café of day 2 for discussion of the WG projects)

  • 09h30 – 09h45: WG1 Prioritisation (Valeria Dulio, INERIS; Nikiforos Alygizakis, EI; Peter von der Ohe, UBA)
  • 09h45 – 10h00: WG2 Bioassays (Henner Hollert, Goethe University of Frankfurt)
  • 10h00 – 10h15: WG3 Effect Directed Analysis for identification of hazardous contaminants (Iker Alvarez Mora, UFZ; Frederic Béen, VU)
  • 10h15 – 10h30: WG4 Nano-and micro scale particulate contaminants (Ralf Kägi, Eawag; Bert van Bavel, NIVA)
  • 10h30 – 10h45: WG5 Water reuse and policy support (Geneviève Deviller, DERAC; Lian Lundy, LTU)
 10h45 – 11h15

Coffee break
 11h15 – 12h30

Working Groups Highlights (Chairs: Pawel and Valeria)
  • 11h15 – 11h30: WG6: Emerging substances in the indoor environment (Lisa Melymuk, RECETOX, Pim Leonards, VU; Adrian Covaci, Antwerp University)
  • 11h30 – 11h45: WG7: Soil and terrestrial environment (Annegret Biegel-Engler, UBA; Laetitia Six, OVAM)
  • 11h45 – 12h00: WG8 CEC in the Marine environment (Fiona Regan, DCU; Brendan McHugh, Marine Institute)
  • 12h00 – 12h15: PS-CWG: Cross-Working Group Activity Passive Sampling (Ian Allan, NIVA; Cécile Miège, INRAE)
  • 12h15 – 12h30: NTS-CWG: Cross-Working Group Activity Non-target screening (Juliane Hollender, Eawag)
 12h30 – 13h30

Lunch
 13h30 – 14h30

Perspectives: from data to action (Chairs: Werner and Jan)
 13h30 – 14h00

NORMAN Database System
  • Current status and perspectives for further development (Jaroslav Slobodnik, EI)

Questions

 14h00 – 14h30

Invited speaker: New developments in chemical and environmental regulations (the view of NGOs)
  • New developments in chemicals and environmental regulation: needs and challenges (Sara Johansson, European Environmental Bureau)

Questions

 14h30 – 16h00

World Café – Discussion corners (with coffee): NORMAN in response to the questions of the NGOs 
  • Enhancing data sharing and use: the role of NORMAN in achieving the goals of the EU Data Common Platform; how NGOs could benefit from NORMAN databases, NGOs questions?)
  • Effective collaboration with NGOs (e.g. ChemSec; ChemTrust; Environmental health Alliance; PFAS, PAN, Microplastics….): importance, benefits, challenges, and actions
  • Substance prioritisation needs (leaching of plastic additives, tire-borne water contaminants, PFAS)
  • Citizen’s science (are there simple test schemes that could be developed and implemented in collaboration with NGOs?)
  • Communicating on emerging risks: Science to Citizens vs Science to policy? (related to our role, our capacity)
  • New tools for monitoring the ocean - including citizen science

Participants are free to visit the different corners to exchange ideas on the proposed topics. The outcomes will provide precious input for the finalization of the NORMAN JPA 2025 and beyond

 16h00 – 16h30

Coffee break
 16h30 – 17h15

Report to the plenary
 17h15 – 18h00

Financial issues
  • Voting of the Financial and Activity report 2023
  • Reporting to GA on financial issues 2023 (Treasurer, Gunnar Thorsen, IVL)
 20h00

Dinner together, please indicate in the registration form if you wish to join (the dinner will need to be paid by the attendees)

4 December 2024 – Day 2

From 8h45 - 13h00 (CET)

 08h45 – 09h45

Collaboration with the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC)
  • PARC partnership : current activities and perspectives (Pascal Sanders, ANSES)

Questions

 09h05 – 10h00

JPA 2025 - new proposals (2-3 slides - 5 min) (Chairs: Juliane and Célia)
  • Feedback from the Workshop on “Artificial Intelligence for environmental monitoring and assessment of chemicals and their mixtures” (Jan Koschorreck, UBA; Werner, UFZ and Juliane Hollender, Eawag)
  • NORMAN and Joint Danube Survey 5 (Igor Liska, ICPDR; Jaroslav Slobodnik, EI)
  • Wastewater Epidemiology and indoor dust (Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, University of Bath)
  • Non-target screening of airborne organic substances in PDMS-foam passive samplers: NORMAN Trial (Adrià Sunyer Caldú, Stockholm University)

To be completed with input from the members.

 10h00 – 11h00

World Café – Discussion corners (with coffee)

Exchange ideas among Working Groups: people will be free to circulate from one discussion corner to the other; discussion with the “visitors” will stimulate new ideas and proposals for cross-linking activities between the WGs.

Suggested topics:

  • Advances in High-throughput EDA
  • Soil and terrestrial environment
  • Databases, new structure of the NDS, opportunities and challenges for NORMAN members? Enhancing the potential of the NORMAN databases? Data in support of environmental modelling?
  • Next steps for AI in NORMAN?
  • Harmonization in nontarget screening, next steps after the NORMAN guidance document (use by regulators, ISO Group on NTS for water quality, alignment with BP4NTA)
  • NORMAN and PARC, proposals for collaborative activities
 11h00 – 11h30

Coffee break
 11h30 – 12h30

Feedback from the World Café (each rapporteur reports to the plenary the main outcomes of the discussions)

Discussion

 12h30 – 13h00

Wrap-up and goodbye (Jaroslav and Valeria)

Frequently Asked Questions

NORMAN General Assembly meeting 2024
The General Assembly meeting is the annual event where NORMAN's 90+ member organisations meet up to present the on-going activities and discuss proposals for future research activities in synergy with other projects and networks.
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