Since one year already we are part of the EU-funded collaborative research project "Solutions for present and future emerging pollutants in land and water resources management" (SOLUTIONS). It is one of the largest environmental research projects within the EU and promises nothing less than to find a solution for all substances and mixtures in European water bodies and suggest to the EU commission how future water quality assessment should look like.
Our part in this is to better predict the influence of already existing and "emerging" pollutants through an improved understanding of the effects of environmental burdens on cells and organisms.
For further info on the project in general and the work of our group go to:
http://www.solutions-project.eu/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/SOLUTIONS/442137955889022
https://twitter.com/SOLUTIONS_UFZ
http://www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/gufw/?lidx=1#aaaaaaaaaaagufx
http://www.aachener-zeitung.de/lokales/region/der-gesundheit-unserer-seen-auf-den-grund-gehen-1.935379 (German)
What is truely unique to the project is the composition of the consortium. The partners are coming not only from all different countries and institutions - what is common to such large endeavours - but they all feature some specific expertise that might come in handy for someone else from the project. There is much less overlap of research fields than in other joint projects, providing a vast selection of different knowledge, tools, methods, equipment, skills, capabilities and the like. Literally we can say that the solution for any problem we encounter within the project lies in the consortium and just has to be asked for. What a good condition for our water bodies.
