Projet MONPLAS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Doctoral Networks
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Micro and nanoplastics have recently been found in our soil, tap water, bottled water, beer and even in the air we breathe, with a growing concern about the potential health risks they pose to us. Whether that is through ingesting the harmful bacteria they pick up when coming from wastewater plants, or just through injury and death of cells through contact, possibly through absorption of nanoplastics by cells, we really don’t know. Which is why there is an urgent need for more research on their toxicity and also why a new EC drinking water directive is to be published in 2019 stating that water companies will need to measure concentrations of microplastics from within two years for positive release and inspection. However, even though a standard measurement method will be published in 2019 for water, its necessary use of existing and expensive scientific laboratory equipment, such as microscopy and FTIR or Raman spectroscopy, will make it prohibitively expensive for in line use for many companies across Europe especially considering its need for highly trained personnel. There is therefore a need to develop suitable technologies for a robust, easy to use and low cost industrial instrument, whose measurements will correspond directly to the aforementioned standard, as well as train engineers for method development and operation. Given these multiple technical and analytical challenges, and that global production of plastic, that can take hundreds of years to biodegrade, is expected to triple by 2050; we propose a timely four year Initial Training Network to train multiple Early State Researchers throughout various scientific areas. Consisting of some of Europe's greatest experts in their fields it will provide tomorrows talent with the skills and knowledge to tackle possibly one of mankind's greatest threats to its existence whilst they jointly develop the technologies for the industrial instrument in collaboration with end-users and equipment manufacturers.

Mots clés : microplastics nanoplastics microfluidics photonics optics toxicology instrumentation

Participants :
- Aalborg University (Danemark) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 595044.0 €
- Aston University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 606345.12 €
- Wageningen University & Research (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 265619.88 €
- Queen's University Belfast (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 606345.12 €
- Leibniz Association (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 505576.8 €
- Bruker (Germany) (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 136435.52 €
- Bruker (Germany) (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 116352.88 €
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Suède) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 563965.92 €
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgique) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 512640.0 €