Research and Development

ARAGORN, led by the University of Copenhagen and joined by 17 partners from 12 EU nations, aims to empower land managers in protecting Europe's soil. By employing advanced mapping tools, the project will identify polluted areas and develop sustainable remediation strategies, including nature-based solutions. Through collaborative engagement with stakeholders, ARAGORN seeks to provide tailored guidance for decision-making at local, national, and EU levels, fostering resilient restoration efforts and upholding long-term commitments to soil health and environmental stewardship.

Read the latest news on the ARAGORN project on our website.

Find out more about the ARAGORN project here, or contact Nathalie Briels for more information.

The QTOX doctoral network aims to advance mechanistic understanding and develop modeling tools that efficiently link conventional toxicity data with ecologically significant outcomes resulting from prolonged, fluctuating exposures to chemical mixtures. This endeavor will be realized through an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral research and training initiative involving 10 Doctoral Candidates, at different University across Europe. These candidates will characterise the mechanistic pathways from exposure to ecosystem-level impacts and devise models for predicting adverse effects across various levels of biological organization, within environmentally realistic scenarios.

News on this network can be found on the QTOX website.

Information on the different work packages within QTOX can be found here.

Find out more about the partners involved in QTOX here.

Eurométaux, in close collaboration with consortia, commodities associations, and companies, has developed a comprehensive "environmental exposure gathering program" to meet both current requirements and anticipated future demands in alignment with the Zero Pollution Ambition and biodiversity goals.

This program comprises two distinct "data gathering packs" aimed at addressing regulatory concerns, notably the Mixture Assessment Factor (MAF) proposed under REACH by the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), and the Zero Pollution Action Plan (ZPAP)/MISA/REACH pack. In total, these packs encompass six projects, each contributing incrementally and systematically to demonstrate that metal environmental exposures pose no significant risk to human health or the environment.

More information on the MEED programme can be found on the website.

In the Life-project NARMENA (NAture-based Remediation of MEtal pollutants in Nature Areas), seven partners investigate nature-based remediation techniques on heavy metal polluted in soils and seidments. Focus is on non-invasive remediation techniques, such as constructed wetlands and bacteria-assisted phytoremediation, which not only treat the pollution, but also have an eye for nature preservation and water storage for flood risk management.

In this project, ARCHE Consulting is responsible for assessing the environmental impact of nature-based remediation approaches on the three test cases in Flanders. ARCHE will develop ecological models to assess how remediation impacts metal biovailability and local wildlife at different trophic levels (macrophytes, benthic invertebrates, and pelagic invertebrates).

NARMENA is supported by the LIFE programme of the European Commission. Find out more about this project on the website of OVAM.

Ecological models offer a new way to gain a deeper understanding of laboratory test data while maximizing its usefulness for risk assessment. These models can predict effects at higher levels of biological organization, such as populations or ecosystems, in more realistic environments, and simulate untested conditions. Additionally, ecological models can provide insights into the underlying mechanisms affecting organisms, populations, and communities.

The ecological modeling team at ARCHE Consulting has extensive experience in developing and applying a wide range of ecological models. Our services include:

Our services include:

• Using the General Unified Threshold model for Survival (GUTS), a toxicokinetic-toxicodynamic (TKTD) based approach, to analyze survival data and lethal effects.

• Analyzing sub-lethal effect data with DEBtktd (formerly DEBtox) models, which combine TKTD with Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) models.

• Applying individual-based models (IBMs) for population-level modeling. DEB-IBM combines the strengths of both DEB and IBM, providing a flexible tool for extrapolating lethal and sub-lethal effects to the population level.

• Using food-web or community modeling for higher-level effects.

• Combining ecological models with other scientific tools such as bio-availability models and species-sensitivity-distribution (SSD)-based approaches to enhance the prediction of effects.

The CHROMIC project is funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program (Grant Agreement n° 730471). Securing a steady supply of chromium, vanadium, molybdenum and niobium is of strategic importance for the European industry.

These metals are fundamental for the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector and the innovation potential of high-tech sectors. Yet Europe remains highly dependent on import for these metals, leading to an inflexible and insecure supply. At the same time, a wealth of such metals is entrapped in industrial wastes or used in applications where their intrinsic value is not fully utilized.

The CHROMIC project aims to unlock the potential of these resources. By smart combinations of existing methods and new technological innovations, CHROMIC will develop new processes to recover chromium, vanadium, molybdenum and niobium from industrial waste. A range of chemical and physical methods will be developed, tested and validated to extract valuable and critical metals from the initial slags in the most sustainable way: economically, environmentally and socially. ARCHE Consulting is leading the work package on the circular economy context and assessment of health, environmental and economic aspects and legal compliance.

More information can be found on the Chromic project website.

ARCHE Consulting in involved in METGROW+, a project funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program (Grant Agreement n° 690088).

METGROW+ will address and solve bottlenecks in the European raw materials supply by developing innovative metallurgical technologies for unlocking the use of potential domestic raw materials. Within this project, both primary and secondary materials are studied as potential metal resources. Economically important nickel-cobalt deposits, low grade polymetallic wastes and iron containing sludges (goethite, jarosite, etc.) which are currently not yet being exploited due to technical bottlenecks are in focus. Concurrently, METGROW+ targets innovative processes to extract important metals including Ni, Cu, Zn, Co, In, Ga, Ge in a cost-effective way. As project main output, a toolbox for metallurgical systems development is created in the project using new methods and combinations.

ARCHE Consulting is responsible in this project for the assessment of environmental impacts in an LCA approach and for health and safety risk assessment of the technologies and products studied.

More information can be found on the METGROW+ website.

The INRAM project (supported by the Belgian Science Policy BELSPO) aimed to assess in an integrated approach the risks of micropollutants to Belgian coastal zone ecosystems and man (2006-2010). ARCHE was responsible for the risk assessment part of the project.

The overall aims of the present project were to:

• Study the transfer and environmental concentrations of established priority compounds (cf. OSPAR, WFD and the UNECE lists) and emerging pollutants (e.g. pharmaceuticals) transfer via the three Belgian coastal harbours and the Scheldt, to coastal waters.

• Apply an unique combination of novel field and laboratory ecotoxicological and chemical techniques to establish both effects and food chain transfer of these chemicals.

• For the first time, establish the relationship between local occurrence of hazardous compounds, ecosystem health and potential human health effects, through the use of consumer organisms as test/monitoring species (e.g. commercial fish, crustacean and mollusc species).

• Develop and evaluate a framework and toolbox for monitoring the chemical anthropogenic pressures on coastal ecosystems and commercial marine products.

More information can be found at INRAM

GEochemical Mapping of Agricultural Soil (GEMAS) is a cooperation project between the Geochemistry Expert Group of EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) and Eurometaux. The GEMAS project started in 2008 with the objective to produce harmonised soil geochemical data at the European continental scale, consistent with the EU REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) Regulation. Since the start of the project ARCHE was involved in GEMAS for using the data in risk assessments for metals in soil at the European scale. The GEMAS project resulted in a harmonised monitoring dataset for both soil metal concentrations and some general soil properties in the topsoil of grassland (0-10 cm) and arable land (0-20 cm) across Europe. Such data provide a strong basis for taking into account the spatial variability of both exposure (metal concentrations) and effect concentrations (considering bioavailability through variation in soil properties) in a risk assessment for metals in soil, avoiding the need for (worst-case) assumptions in both respects and, thereby, increasing the transparency and reliability of the regional risk characterisation. More information can be found at the GEMAS website. All data were published in two volumes of Chemistry of Europe’s Agricultural soils.

ARCHE cooperates as a subcontractor of Thomas More Kempen in the ASOPUS (Automated System fOr the Prediction & Use of (Q)SARs) project supported by IWT (Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie). The goal of this project is to develop a user friendly, practical and freely available webtool to help the user to select the most applicable (Q)SARs for product development, product registration and product follow-up. The developed decision tree will give the user an idea of the reliability of the (Q)SARs of the substance and, if applicable, the tool will also provide extra information to increase the reliability. This tool will become the guidance for the correct use of (Q)SARs for toxicity production of chemical substances. More information can be found on the dedicated ASOPUS page.

The EFSA Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR) started a revision of the existing Guidance Document on Persistence in Soil and proposed a tiered assessment scheme for the assessment of the two environmentally relevant concentrations (ERCs), i.e. the concentration in total soil and the concentration in pore water.  ARCHE together with the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy) and the Food and Environmental Research Agency (FERA, UK), is responsible for the scenario selection and scenario parameterization of permanent crops and row crops on ridges in support of predicting environmental concentrations of plant protection products and their transformation products in soil.

ARCHE  is involved in the 4FUN project, which is funded under the EU 7th Framework Programme. The Cooperation Programme aims to stimulate cooperation and improve links between industry and research within a transnational framework. 4FUN was funded in the theme environment. The aim of 4FUN is to shift from a ‘prototype’ (the 2-FUN tool, developed under the 6th Framework Programme) to a ‘standardised’ software. In particular, 4FUN aims to:

• Innovate and exploit the 2-FUN prototype software

• Standardise the 2-FUN prototype software

• Transfer the improved tool to stakeholders

• Guarantee long-term technical and economic viability of the improved tool, called the MERLIN-Expo tool

The MERLIN-Expo tool contains a library of models, coupling environmental multimedia and pharmacokinetic models and is able to simulate transport of contaminants from the environment to the human body.  More information is available in the 4FUN flyer which can be downloaded HERE