Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals

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 is granted under HORIZON-HLTH-2021-ENVHLTH-03 and PARC will facilitate the transition to next generation risk assessment to better protect human health and the environment,
in line with the Green Deals 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.

PARC is a 7-year partnership under Horizon Europe, the EU’s 2021-2027 framework programme for the funding of research and innovation.
200 partners in 28 countries and at EU level, national agencies and research organisations working in the areas of the environment or public health, the European Chemical Agency (ECHA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). A budget of 400 million euros, 50% funded by the European Union and 50% by Member States. PARC aims to develop next-generation chemical risk assessment to protect human health and the environment. It supports the European Union's Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and the European Green Deal's “Zero pollution” ambition with new data, knowledge, methods and tools, expertise and networks.