CT-Luso intends to (1) draw an updated diagnosis and screenshot of the research ethics infrastructure in the 5 Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PSAC), (2) identify the needed transformations, draft strategic recommendations to carry out this transformation and design a policy roadmap for its implementation, (3) reinforce existing legislation and promote the necessary regulations for a robust ethical-legal framework, supporting the revision of internal regulations for the operation of RECs and NRAs, and promote the development of codes of scientific integrity in research institutions, (4) strengthen the skills of RECs and NRAs, researchers (senior, junior and post-graduate students) by drafting guidelines for the practice of the different roles required by the evaluation of CTs. It is necessary to work with all 5 PSAC simultaneously on four different levels, all equally indispensable and complementary: legislative, institutional, professional, and procedural, which in turn requires political commitment. CT-Luso proposes to reach the abovementioned objectives by (1) building an international team of legal experts and promoting dialogue for the co-creation of legislative and organizational recommendations (2) creating an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral education (3) creating an advanced progressive training program for members of RECs, NRA, CTs Centres and researchers (4) hands-on experience developed in a finely tuned manner and according to country specificities, complementing the previous education and training programs (5) assess whether each PSAC has the necessary installed capacity to be included in the international CTs roadmap and in particular to create a Portuguese-speaking cluster by simulating the procedures under the development of an academic CT (6) in parallel, the legislative and regulatory transformations to be implemented will require the political power involvement, acting in a double approach, both bottom-up and top-down.

PARC is an EU-wide research and innovation partnership programme to support EU and national chemical risk assessment and risk management bodies with new data, knowledge, methods, networks and skills to address current, emerging and novel chemical safety challenges. PARC will facilitate the transition to next generation risk assessment to better protect human health and the environment, in line with the Green Deal?s zero-pollution ambition for a toxic free environment and will be an enabler for the future EU ?Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability?. It builds in part on the work undertaken and experience acquired in past and on-going research and innovation actions, but goes beyond by its vocation to establish an EU-wide risk assessment hub of excellence. To contribute to several expected impacts of destination 2 ?Living and working in a health-promoting environment?, PARC will organise the activities to reach three specific objectives: - An EU-wide sustainable cross-disciplinary network to identify and agree on research and innovation needs and to support research uptake into regulatory chemical risk assessment. - Joint EU research and innovation activities responding to identified priorities in support of current regulatory risk assessment processes for chemical substances and to emerging challenges. - Strengthening existing capacities and building new transdisciplinary platforms to support chemical risk assessment. The Partnership brings together Ministries and national public health and risk assessment agencies, as well as research organisations and academia from almost all of EU Member States. Representatives of Directorates-General of the EC and EU agencies involved in the monitoring of chemicals and the assessment of risks are also participating. PARC will meet the needs of risk assessment agencies to better anticipate emerging risks and respond to the challenges and priorities of the new European policies.

Pandemics have the potential to disrupt our daily lives and to affect every part of society. SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19 disease painfully showed how responding too late, in a fragmented mannar and/or with too little coordination across different sectors and countries, led to huge human and economic costs. ESCAPE’s main objective is to improve efficiency and scalability of early pandemic response plans by providing evidence-based guidelines, standardised research protocols, retrospective insights, and digital solutions that will support scientists in producing and integrating evidence and inform public health authorities in taking decisions to avert or reduce disease and societal burden. The project will provide knowledge and tools that will enhance Europe’s preparedness for a pandemic of pathogen X. These include a science-based blueprint for faster and better decision-making in managing pandemics, tools and frameworks to improve data availability, collection and sharing, as well as advanced analytics and models to understand and project transmission dynamics of pathogen X under candidate response scenarios. ESCAPE will also identify determinants of success and failure in managing pathogen X based on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, helping to develop effective response strategies for future pandemics. In addition, the project will contribute to fostering a multi-stakeholder intelligent community allowing improved knowledge sharing and cooperation between policy-makers, the scientific community, the media and the public, ensuring a much more effective response to future pandemics. In the long-term, by improving pandemic preparedness and the effectiveness of response to a pandemic of pathogen X, the project will contribute to reducing health burden and potential negative societal and economic consequences during pandemics, as well as increase the confidence of policy makers and the public in science-based solutions.

The overarching objectives of AQUASERV are to bring together, enhance, integrate and customise RI capacities (including facilities, instruments and expertise) and through the provision of transnational access (on-site or remote) and/or virtual access, to significantly further scientific advance and promote and facilitate the implementation of European Common Fisheries Policy, the Farm to Fork Strategy, the Sustainable Blue Economy and the European Green Deal. AQUASERV will achieve these objectives by offering scientists from academia and business remote and on-site transnational (TA) and virtual (VA) access to an advanced set of European research infrastructures and its nodes related to research and management of marine and freshwater biological resources, food and biotechnology. These include the European Marine Biological Resource Centre ERIC (EMBRC), the Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems ERIC, The Aquaculture for Excellence for Aquaculture in Fish (Aquaexcel), and the Infrastructure for Promoting Metrology in Food and Nutrition (METROFOOD), as well as the International Council for Exploration of the Sea, both a service provider and stakeholder. It also includes the Research Infrastructure for Science and Innovation Policy Studies (RISIS) to bring contributions from the social sciences and to bring results nearer to policy makers ensuring societal impact. To enhance, integrate and customise RI capacities, collaboration between partners and new pipelines to meet the objectives of the project will be developed during the first 3 years and will make available to users. To ensure these capacities will not be lost, a sustainability work package involving stakeholders will address the project legacy. To maximize impact, AQUASERV will build a communication network among the partnership and develop a dissemination and outreach programme. Furthermore, an advanced training programme will be developed to capture future users and will be updated during the p