About the Flemish Centre of expertise on Environment and Health

Environment and Health

Environment and health are very broad concepts which touch and are an integral part of the activities and structures of our society. The link between both is of a very complex nature so that a multidisciplinary approach is necessary and evident.
It is logic to expect that the Centre is able to manage relevant knowledge - including associated information, documentation and databases, to manage research methodologies related to health and environment - to actualize and improve them and to put them forward to the public authorities. This implies the need for synthesis and integration instruments and the need to reinforce the interdisciplinary approach.

Aims

The first aim is that each sub-field and each discipline can produce the necessary relevant data and that the monitoring activities and R&D; challenges can be restricted to what is essential.
The second aim is to provide the decision makers with the necessary and appropriate information so that they can take in a well-informed way and whenever requested argued choices and decisions, transparent to stakeholders and society.
These aims can only be reached with the participation and contribution of a sufficient number of excellence centers. Because the subject is complex, divers and broad, one will never find the necessary capacity in 1 institute. So it will be necessary to produce the relevant data and information via a well coordinated network. In addition the consortium also wants to carry out innovative, high-tech research to develop better biomarkers. Therefore the option was taken, independently of the research landscape in Flanders, to gather all expertise available at the universities and institutes of Flanders.

Expertise

In the participating universities the expertise is roughly distributed as follows:

  • KUL: Fine Particles and Nano-particles, Risk Assessment
  • UA: (Risk) Communication, Models for participation and Social involvement
  • UGent: Health effects, New pollutants, Analyses, Risk Assessment
  • VUB: Environmental effects, New pollutants, Analyses, Risk Assessment

For some tasks the know-how is present in Flemish Institutes. Therefore, the collaboration of the Flemish Institute of Technological Research (VITO, Prof. dr. G. Schoeters – field work, analyses and data treatment) and the Provincial Institute of Hygiene of Antwerp (PIH, Dr. V. Nelen – field work) is required, hence they will be included as partners in a structural way. In addition, Dr. M. Viaene (Public Psychiatric Hospital, OPZ) for Neurotoxicological research, Prof. G. Molenberghs (UHasselt) for Statistics, Prof. S. Dehenauw (UGent) for Nutritional aspects, Prof. T. D’Hooghe (KULeuven) + Prof. J.M. Kaufman (UGent) + Prof. H. Tournaye (VUB) for endocrine disruptors are also involved in the project.