The main goal of the BTSF Training Programme/Course on Environmental risk assessment is to disseminate best practices for the implementation of principles and methods of food chain risk assessment, improving knowledge of this complex area of work and ensuring consistent and high implementation standards across the European Union.

  • Objective 1: Promoting reduction of discrepancies in procedural aspects of risk assessment
  • Objective 2: Contribute to the harmonisation of risk assessment approaches
  • Objective 3: Contribute to increasing transparency and building trust amongst Member States’ authorities in each other’s risk assessments
  • Objective 4: Disseminate best practices for risk management and communication
  • Objective 5: Promote exchange of experience in order to increase the level of expertise and harmonisation of approaches

The course addresses the following topics:

- Introduction on environmental risk assessment (ERA) under the various EU legislation. The course will explain the basics of how to conduct ERA. In particular:

  • looking at the different aspects of the environment and environmental compartments;
  • exercises in problem formulation to better identify the aspects of the environment that need to be protected from harm, according to environmental protection goals as set by EU legislation;
  • how to conduct the selection of non-target organisms for risk assessment evaluation studies, and how to gather relevant evidence. It will include the application and use of statistics to the measurable endpoint results with appropriate interpretation of the biological relevance of statistically significant results;
  • environmental exposure assessment. For each of the environmental compartments, scenario models can be selected to generate data and to link environmental exposure assessment to environmental effects;
  • life-stage analysis. The developmental stages of wildlife are linked with their temporal and spatial distribution Life stage analysis becomes most relevant when exposure patterns are known, and one can investigate whether exposure is likely to have a detrimental effect at a specifically sensitive life stage, with subsequent population level effects, using appropriate modelling tools.

- Short introduction to Risk Communication.

This Training Programme has been designed for the profiles and positions described below. Please verify compliance with the selection criteria before submitting or validating applications.

Participants must:

  • Have worked in functional areas of food chain risk assessment with a minimum of 3 years of professional experience or
  • Have had experience of setting up and implementation of food chain risk assessment in a Competent Authority (covering areas of food/ feed safety, animal health or animal welfare).
Session Start Date End Date City Country
1 13/11/2023 17/11/2023 Valencia Spain
2 09/09/2024 13/09/2024 Riga
Latvia
Environmental risk assessment