Mission

Exposome Austria - National ESFRI-EIRENE Research Infrastructure

Exposome Austria is a new research infrastructure dedicated to the advancement of exposomic technology in Austria and the national node of the pan-European ESFRI-EIRENE infrastructure. It aims to fill the gap in the European infrastructural landscape and to pioneer the first EU infrastructure on the human exposome.

The Austrian national node of the pan-European EIRENE Research Infrastructure was initiated in January 2022 and introduced to the public at the official Launch Event in May 2022 at the University of Vienna.

HEADQUARTERS

Austrian National Node: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna (UNIVIE)
European EIRENE Coordinator: Masaryk University (RECETOX Center), Brno, Czech Republic

https://www.esfri.eu/sites/default/files/ESFRI_roadmap2021_New-Projects_PressRelease.pdf

Background and Relevance of Exposome Research in Austria and Europe

It has been demonstrated that environmental exposure plays an important role in the growing incidences of non-communicable diseases. According to current findings, about 70-90% of the overall disease burden is caused by environmental factors and this figure is expected to grow.

European populations are exposed to a range of chemicals and mixtures through their diet, products, water, air, indoor, and occupations. For many of these exposures, the health impact is unknown. They are also exposed to noise, heat, air pollution, or stress while the effect of every stressor can be modified by socio-economic conditions, life style, and the dietary patterns.

The current understanding of environmental exposures and their potential health impacts has to be improved and new data has to be made available to both the scientific community and policy makers to inform evidence-based policy making for the adequate protection of human health.