PFAS monitoring and environmental exposure expertise for HORIZON-NATURE-2027-01-01

INCD ECOIND – National Research and Development Institute for Industrial Ecology, Romania – is interested in joining a consortium as a project partner for HORIZON-NATURE-2027-01-01: Understanding the nature and the extent of the effects of PFAS on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

We can contribute a multidisciplinary expertise combining advanced chemical analysis, environmental monitoring, ecotoxicology, environmental risk assessment and field-based studies.

Our institute has extensive experience in the investigation of PFAS and other emerging contaminants in environmental matrices, including surface water, wastewater, marine water, sediments, sludge and biota. Our expertise covers the occurrence, distribution, environmental fate, transfer between environmental compartments, bioaccumulation and environmental risk of PFAS.

INCD ECOIND can contribute to a Horizon Europe consortium with:

• targeted determination of PFAS and other emerging contaminants in complex environmental matrices;

• design and implementation of environmental sampling and monitoring strategies;

• studies on PFAS occurrence, distribution and transfer across water–sediment–biota systems;

• assessment of bioaccumulation, environmental exposure and trophic transfer;

• ecotoxicological testing and assessment of biological effects, through the institute’s Biotests Laboratory;

• integration of chemical monitoring data with ecotoxicological endpoints;

• environmental risk assessment and interpretation of complex environmental datasets;

• QA/QC procedures and generation of reliable and traceable analytical data;

• field studies and environmental case studies in Romania, including wastewater treatment systems, freshwater environments and the Black Sea coastal area.

By combining the expertise of our Water, Soil and Waste Pollution Control Laboratory with the Biotests Laboratory, INCD ECOIND can support an integrated approach linking PFAS contamination and environmental exposure with biological effects and ecosystem responses.

We are particularly interested in contributing as a research partner and/or work package/task partner in interdisciplinary activities addressing PFAS exposure, biodiversity, ecosystem health and environmental risk.

We are looking to collaborate with coordinators and partners with complementary expertise in biodiversity and ecology, food-web dynamics, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services, environmental modelling, remediation, socio-economic assessment and policy uptake.

Our goal is to contribute robust analytical and ecotoxicological evidence to better understand the links between PFAS contamination, exposure, biological effects and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Selected relevant PFAS publications:

• Chiriac, F.L. et al. (2023). Perfluoroalkyl substances in Romanian wastewater treatment plants: Transfer to surface waters, environmental and human risk assessment. Science of the Total Environment, 892, 164576.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164576

• Chiriac, F.L. et al. (2026). Perfluoroalkyl acids and perfluorooctane sulfonate in the Romanian Black Sea: Occurrence and risk assessment. Microchemical Journal, 224, 117767.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2026.117767

• Petre, V.A. et al. (2023). Tissue Bioconcentration Pattern and Biotransformation of Per-Fluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) in Cyprinus carpio (European Carp)—An Extensive In Vivo Study. Foods, 12, 1423.
  https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12071423