The general objective of the VET-TWIN project is to increase the potential and research capacity of the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) by cooperation with internationally-leading counterparts from Germany (Federal Institute for Risk Assessment-BfR) and Denmark (Technical University of Denmark, National Veterinary Institute; DTU Vet) − to act in an international scientific and research environment as a leading institute in the fields of animal infectious diseases, zoonoses and food chain safety. The objective defined in such a way will be accomplished through a number of activities, in particular through the implementation of the Joint Strategy of Cooperation and Development, and by introduction of mechanisms for the interaction of scientists at the operational level, as well as through activities helping in the exchange of knowledge and experiences among scientists. The concept of the VET-TWIN project fully addresses the objectives of the Horizon 2020 programme. Through activities planned in order to increase the level of scientific excellence of the institute and its research staff, the project fully implements the specific objective Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation. The Implementation of the project fits directly in with the specific challenge of Twinning. By creating a partnership between the aforementioned entities, it will be possible to cooperate and exchange knowledge on an international level. Furthermore, the involvement of two scientific centres of excellent repute in the international research community to the VET-TWIN project, will prevent the crowding-out effect for an institution from a country with a lower Composite indicator of Research Excellence. The above-mentioned factors justify the need for the implementation of the project because it responds directly to the problems diagnosed within the Specific Challenge.

In Europe, each year foodborne hazards, including bacteria, parasites, bacterial toxins and allergens, already cause more than 20 million cases of illness and thousands of deaths. Foodborne chemical risk, often associated with occurrence of toxins, are of growing concern. Food safety management systems established over the past decades in our European food businesses, and European food safety governance need to be adapted to make the food system more robust towards multiple stressor coming dynamically up (so as climatic impacts). FoodSafeR aims to design, develop and test the building blocks of an innovative pro-active and holistic food safety warning and management system with a look on the dynamics of emerging risks at its heart. FoodSafeR embodies integrated approaches to hazard characterisation and risk management in a comprehensive suite of future oriented case studies, tools, methods, strategies, models, guidance and training materials. An open and accessible digital hub designed to form a core of a sustaining information system will be set up as a ‘One-Stop-Shop’ vehicle targeted at risk managers and assessors, food safety authorities and the relevant actors and stakeholders operating in the European food system. To reach the ambitious goal, FoodSafeR has united a world-class consortium of 18 organisations from across 14 European countries integrating science, industry, SMEs and policymakers. FoodSafeR will contribute to prevent food safety incidences occuring from biological and chemical hazards in the European food system as well as relevant socio-economic impacts. By bringing this approach to a success, FoodSafeR contributes to ‘sustainable, healthy and inclusive food systems delivering co-benefits for climate mitigation and adaptation, environmental sustainability and circularity, sustainable healthy nutrition, safe food consumption, food poverty reduction, the empowerment of communities, and flourishing food business operations.

The objective of this proposal is to build upon an existing network previously funded by the FP7 European Framework as an infrastructure project, NADIR (Network for Animal Diseases Infectiology Research). This consortium has been extended through the FeHRIDI project, which was submitted but was not selected for funding in 2014. There is an opportunity to build upon this within a dedicated topic in the next infrastructure call (2016). It brings together the main European facilities dedicated to research on infectious diseases of livestock and wild animals, and particularly zoonoses. In accordance with the European « Infrastructure project », the aim is to integrate actions of Networking, Research and services (Transnational accesses) offered by FeHRIDI to public or private research groups. It consists of (i) offering to public as well as private research institutes animal models, technologies and contaminated samples in highly confined facilities adapted to the improvement of our knowledge of infectious processes and to the development of diagnostic and control measures; and (ii) integrating European infectious diseases infrastructures to reduce delays and improve efficiency of research groups’ response to emerging diseases. We propose to develop a network with veterinary and public health authorities, with other European and international networks and projects in virology, bacteriology, parasitology and immunology involved in the control of infectious diseases. To build and develop an international network for an infrastructure proposal by March 30, 2016, we will: - Visit to the head of the main research institutes and international organizations; several have confirmed through support letter their interest for FEHRIDI, but their full integration will favor the extension of our network to Third countries and the development of a network that creates improved responsiveness to disease threats and outbreaks; - Organize three project planning meetings by the end of 2015 with existing partners (21 in total) and potential partners for the integration of epidemiology networks and to extend our consortium to Third countries; - Organize a Stakeholder meeting in Brussels at the beginning of 2016 that will include FEHRIDI partners, the head of international organisations (OIE, WHO) and of networks and projects to be linked with FEHRIDI (MIRRI, EVA global, Epizone, Transvac, SAPHIR …), as well as members of the livestock, pharmaceutical, medical and veterinary industry to collect advice on feedback on how to optimize our consortium to meet the needs of the European community in the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

Wild fauna and flora are facing variable and challenging environmental disturbances. One of the animal groups that is most impacted by this, concerns pollinators. Pollinators face multiple threats, but the spread of anthropogenic chemicals (i.e. pesticides) form a major potential driver of these threats. WildPosh is a multi-actor, transdisciplinary project whose overarching mission and ambition are to significantly improve the evaluation of risk to pesticide exposure of wild pollinators, and enhance the sustainable health of pollinators and pollination services in Europe. As chemical exposure varies geographically, across cropping systems, inside the crop system and among pollinators, we will characterise exposure by doing fieldwork in 4 countries representing the four main climatic European regions, Mediterranean, Atlantic, Continental and Boreal climate in Germany, England, Estonia and Spain. We will also develop experiments in controlled conditions on different species of bees, syrphid flies, moths and butterflies, and collect in silico data on their traits and on toxicity of pesticides. With WildPosh, we aim to achieve the following objectives: 1. Determining the real-world agrochemical exposure profile of wild pollinators at landscape level, within and among sites; 2. Using integrated and controlled laboratory and semi-field experiments to characterise causal relationships between pesticides and pollinator health; 3. Building an open database on pollinator traits/distribution and chemicals to define exposure and toxicity scenarios by developing databases on ecological traits and the spatial distribution of pollinators in relation to their potential exposure to pesticide; 4. Proposing integrated systems-based risk assessment tools for risk assessment for wild pollinators; and 5. Driving policy and practice through interactive innovation, meeting the need for monitoring tools, novel and innovative screening protocols for practice and policymaker use.