Science in Risk Assessment and Policy

SciRAP (Science in Risk Assessment and Policy) is a web-based reporting and evaluation resource developed to facilitate and increase the use of academic toxicity and ecotoxicity studies in regulatory assessment of chemicals. The intention is to bridge the gap between academic research and chemicals regulation and policy.

Why is this important? There is overall a need to increase structure and transparency in the evaluation of (eco)toxicity studies for regulatory risk assessment of chemicals. Further, academic research studies are often given little weight as evidence in risk assessment. One reason is that they are considered insufficiently reported for regulatory purposes.

Intended use? The SciRAP resource is intended for regulators and risk assessors as well as researchers, reviewers and editors. SciRAP provides criteria for the evaluation of reliability and relevance of studies intended for regulators and risk assessors. The reporting guidelines are intended as a tool for researchers in the design, performance, and reporting of studies. The criteria presented here can also be used as a template in the review process for scientific publication to increase the reliability and reproducibility of studies.

SciRAP is a collaboration between the Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES), Stockholm University, and the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet. Please contact us if you have questions or comments.

News!

We have updated the SciRAP evaluation criteria and colour coding tool. Go to the evaluation pages for toxicity and ecotoxicity studies, respectively, and try them out! We welcome your feedback.

Two SciRAP-webinars were held on April 24 and 25, introducing the approaches for evaluating ecotoxicity and toxicity studies for hazard and risk assessment. Recordings of the webinars and the presentations are available here.

Recent publications: 

Ågerstrand M, Sobek A, Lilja K, Linderoth M, Wendt-Rasch L, Wernersson A-S, Rudén C. 2017. An academic researcher’s guide to increased impact on regulatory assessment of chemicals. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. In Press. 

Hartmann NB, Ågerstrand M, Holten Lûtzhoft H-C, Baun A. 2017. "NanoCRED: A transparent framework to access the regulatory adequacy of ecotoxicity data for nanomaterial - Relevance and reliability revisited". NanoImpact, In press. 

A SciRAP workshop with participants from all Nordic countries was held on November 15 - 16, 2016 at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Thank you to all who participated!