Background
Persistence assessment heavily relies on biodegradation studies to investigate the potential of chemicals to be degraded by environmentally occurring microorganisms. An increasing number of simulation studies have been requested by regulatory agencies in recent years to generate degradation half-lives that can be compared against regulatory criteria and investigate degradation pathways including the identification of possible persistent transformation products. These studies are associated with complex analytics and high cost while providing marginal insights about the mechanistic aspects of biodegradation.
Despite the central role played by microorganisms in biodegradation and the potential to provide mechanistic insights into transformation processes, there remains a significant disconnect between the simplified, standardised laboratory studies used for persistence assessment and the complex microbial processes that ultimately govern environmental degradation. As result, microbial investigations, expertise and data are largely underutilized and only marginally considered in persistence assessment. Such investigations as briefly highlighted in Fenner et al. (2021) could lead better discrimination between biodegradable substances and recalcitrant substrates accumulating in the environment.
Objectives
The objective of the project is to address the current disconnect persistence assessment and the microbiological processes that drive environmental degradation by systematically incorporating microbiological evidence into the evaluation of chemical fate.
This will establish a foundation for identifying and developing alternative and complementary methodologies that provide greater mechanistic understanding, improve environmental relevance, and strengthen the scientific basis of persistence assessment.
The key objectives are to:
- Establish a comprehensive understanding of current advances in environmental microbiology related to biodegradation and persistence of small molecules and polymers., and determine how microbial and enzymatic approaches applied in other sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, could be adapted to enhance the mechanistic basis and environmental relevance of persistence assessment.
- Identify and evaluate microbial factors including specific taxa, enzymes, and metabolic pathways—that influence chemical transformation across environmental compartments. Assess the applicability, scalability, and suitability of current microbiological techniques (including microbial cultivation and isolation, enzyme assays, (meta)genomics, (meta)transcriptomics, (meta)proteomics, and microbial growth measurements), for generating information relevant to persistence assessment and for potential use in high-throughput testing approaches..
- Develop a strategy for incorporating mechanistic microbiological knowledge into predictive approaches for assessing chemical persistence. The strategy should identify opportunities to integrate microbiological evidence into persistence assessment frameworks, ranging from quantitative tools that estimate the likelihood of biodegradation under environmentally relevant conditions to its application within Weight of Evidence approaches. The outputs should include a conceptual framework and a decision tree to support the integration of microbiological data into persistence assessment and regulatory decision-making.
- Develop a research roadmap that identifies priority evidence gaps, data needs, and methodological developments required to support the regulatory application of microbiological data in persistence. The roadmap should be informed through engagement with stakeholders from regulatory bodies, academia, and industry including targeted interviews to identify barriers to implementations and opportunities for uptake .
Scope
This project should analyse the scientific state of the art, identify research gaps and evidence to be generated to leverage microbiological studies, and recommend an alternative to persistence assessment for small molecules and polymers that could be evaluated through future work.
Deliverables
- State-of-the-art report summarizing current knowledge of environmental microbiology relevant to persistence assessment, key microbial degradation mechanisms, method suitability, opportunities for into regulatory assessment, and cost-benefit analysis relative to existing persistence testing approaches.
- Peer-reviewed publication describing the challenges, opportunities and future role of microbiological methodologies in persistence assessment.
- Methodological concept paper including a conceptual framework and decision tree, outlining how microbiological evidence and endpoints could complement existing OECD biodegradation tests and broader persistence assessment frameworks.
- Research roadmap identifying priority evidence gaps, data needs, methodological developments, and stakeholder recommendation to support the future regulatory application of microbiological data and provide a guidance for eventual future research opportunities.
- Final project report integrating all findings, recommendations, and proposed next steps.
Partnering / Co-funding
Applicants should provide an indication of additional partners and funding opportunities that can be appropriately leveraged as part of their proposal. Partners can include, but are not limited to industry, government/regulatory organizations, research institutes, etc. Statements from potential partners should be included in the proposal.
Fit with LRI objectives / Possible regulatory and policy impact involvements / Dissemination
Applicants should provide information on the fit of their proposal with LRI objectives and an indication on how and where they could play a role in the regulatory and policy areas. Dissemination plans should also be laid down. For LRI objectives visit the website page: About Cefic-LRI – Cefic-Lri.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: January 17, 2027 at 11:59 PM CET.
Please see www.cefic-lri.org/funding-opportunities/apply-for-a-grant/ for general LRI objectives information, project proposal form and further guidance for grant applications. Please note that if awarded the project, the institute must be able to accept Belgian Law (or an equivalent European legal framework) in the contract. If there are questions, please email lri@cefic.be.
Related links
References
Fenner K. et al. (2021), Methodological Advances to Study Contaminant Biotransformation: New Prospects for Understanding and Reducing Environmental Persistence?. ACS EST Water, 1 (7): 1541–1554.
