NCIMB is delighted to be part of ARISTO: The European Industry – Academia Network for Revising and Advancing the Assessment of the Soil Microbial Toxicity of Pesticides.
ARISTO is an International Training Network (ITN) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement.
The European Commission has imposed a stringent pesticide regulatory scheme for pesticides authorisation, where risk assessment for aquatic organisms and terrestrial macro-organisms is well defined. In contrast, the assessment of the toxicity of pesticides on soil microorganisms is lagging behind. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has identified soil microorganisms as an attribute to monitor during pesticides environmental risk assessment, and stressed the need for novel tests to assess the toxicity of pesticides on soil microorganisms.
The ARISTO project aims to fulfil this scientific and regulatory gap through a unique doctoral program.
Nine PhD scholarships are available as part of the programme, one of which – In vitro assessment of the toxicity of pesticides on ammonia oxidising microorganisms – includes 18 months at NCIMB.
More information about the ARISTO programme and all the PhD scholarships available can be found here.
