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 (ACES), Stockholm University, and the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet. Please contact us if you have questions or comments.

News!

Read this interview with Marlene Ågerstrand in the ECHA newsletter!

Recent publications: 

Waspe J, Bui T, Dishaw L, Kraft A, Luke A, Beronius A. 2021. Evaluating reliability and risk of bias of in vivo animal data for risk assessment of chemicals – exploring the use of the SciRAP tool in a systematic review context. Env Int.146:106103. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.106103

Leong et al. 2019. On the issue of transparency and reproducibility in nanomedicine. Nature Nanotechnology 14: 629-635.

Ingre-Khans E, Ågerstrand M, Beronius A, Rudén C. 2019. Toxicity studies used in REACH - How accurately are they reported? Integr Environ Assess Manag. DOI: 10.1002/ieam.4123. 

Ingre-Khans E, Ågerstrand M, Rudén C, Beronius A. 2019. Improving structure and transparency in reliability evaluations of data under REACH – suggestions for a systematic method. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment. DOI: 10.1080/10807039.2018.1504275

Ingre-Khans E, Ågerstrand M, Beronius A, Rudén C. 2019. Reliability and relevance evaluations of REACH data. Toxicology Research. 8:46.