The EU has flagged endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which interfere with normal hormonal function leading to adverse health effects, of particular concern. Within different EU regulatory programmes the assessment of EDCs has recently changed significantly and continues to evolve rapidly. Advances in test methods for assessment of EDCs are needed to meet these changing regulatory requirements, and a new generation of toxicologists must be trained to support the implementation of the most advanced approaches. NeXED will address three critical challenges in this area. First, human and environmental EDC assessment have historically been separate disciplines while there is an increasing need to use data across species in a One Health approach. Second, EDC assessment currently addresses single compounds while in an environmentally realistic scenario organisms are faced with complex mixtures of EDCs. Third, new test methods for EDC assessment are needed, covering less well-characterised mechanisms and effects. NeXED aims to facilitate a paradigm shift in EDC assessment by training a new generation of cross-disciplinary toxicologists specialised in using harmonised approaches in a One Health framework. NeXED will train its 14 doctoral candidates through research, secondments and training events using an interdisciplinary and intersectoral training programme. NeXED brings together 10 Beneficiaries and 10 Associated Partners from 10 countries, building upon long-standing collaborations through existing projects including the Horizon 2020 EURION projects and the Horizon Europe Partnership on the Assessment of Risk from Chemicals (PARC). The consortium includes leading researchers from institutions with excellent doctoral training programmes who are all experts in ED assessment, as well as industry partners, regulatory agencies, SMEs and consultancy firms. With its complementary expertise the consortium is ideally placed to train the NeXED generation of toxicologists.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Meeting energy demands in the most sustainable way is a major challenge for society. Offshore wind farms - groupings of wind turbines on submerged sediments - offers part of the solution for the energy transition that is needed to mitigate climate change, and the UK has committed to a dramatic and rapid expansion of wind farms in the seas around the UK. However, shelf sea sediments host diverse and productive communities that play a very important role in processing nutrients and carbon that underpin the entire food web. Many species are also important prey items for higher trophic levels, including sea mammals and birds. At the same time, many sediment-dwelling species, such as clams, worms, shrimp and some fish are so intimately associated with the sediment environment that they are particularly susceptible to disturbance. This raises concern as the expansion of offshore wind currently underway means that marine ecosystems are highly likely to experience a large proportional change in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning if marine policy and the management of increasing pressures on UK marine ecosystems is not correctly guided. In this project, we have assembled marine ecologists, engineers and computational scientists to work together to understand ecosystem responses to the cumulative pressures of a large increase in deployment of offshore wind, considered in combination with other pressures that marine ecosystems are facing caused by human activity (bottom fishing, shipping) and the effects of climate change (acidification, warming, low oxygen). To do this, we will collate available data on many aspects of the marine environment and fill in gaps in these data by collecting targeted information about how species interact and behave around offshore wind structures using autonomous vehicles and use artificial intelligence algorithms to identify any associations and patterns. This analysis will also tell us which species are vulnerable to change and highlight areas of concern. Next, we will carry out a series of experiments that will test whether representative species are susceptible to certain types of noise and vibration, electromagnetism and localised heating which are common sources of disturbance associated with wind farms. We will also bring back intact assemblages from areas experiencing different levels of fishing intensity and expose them to the same pressures to see whether species that are experiencing one set of pressures will respond in the same way as those that are not experiencing other pressures. This will tell us how species respond under current conditions, but the pace of climate change means that an additional set of pressures will also effects these species. Hence, we will carry out the same experiments under simulated future conditions (warmer and with altered seawater chemistry). The results of these experiments will tell us whether species benefit or are compromised by certain combinations of pressures, and our expectation is that some species and communities will fair better than others. We will use this information to develop models that allow us to predict how other species that we have not considered, but which share similar traits, may respond. To do this we will use sophisticated statistical models that take into account wider information and make predictions about what marine systems in the future might look like in the future under different scenarios of habitat use, human activity and climate change. In a final step, we will develop a decision support tool that will allow the complexities, including positive and negative feedbacks, to be taken into account by decision and policy makers so they can see the likely consequences of consenting offshore wind in specific locations. Our tool will support the sustainable growth of the offshore wind industry by helping decision makers to make informed decisions that minimise pressure on our marine ecosystems.

The coasts and shelf seas that surround us have been the focal point of human prosperity and well-being throughout our history and, consequently, have had a disproportionate effect on our culture. The societal importance of the shelf seas extends beyond food production to include biodiversity, carbon cycling and storage, waste disposal, nutrient cycling, recreation and renewable energy. Yet, as increasing proportions of the global population move closer to the coast, our seas have become progressively eroded by human activities, including overfishing, pollution, habitat disturbance and climate change. This is worrying because the condition of the seabed, biodiversity and human society are inextricably linked. Hence, there is an urgent need to understand the relative sensitivities of a range of shelf habitats so that human pressures can be managed more effectively to ensure the long-term sustainability of our seas and provision of societal benefits. Achieving these aims is not straightforward, as the capacity of the seabed to provide the goods and services we rely upon depends on the type of substrate (rock, gravel, sand, mud) and local conditions; some habitats are naturally dynamic and relatively insensitive to disturbance, while others are comparatively stable and vulnerable to change. This makes it very difficult to assess habitat sensitivities or make general statements about what benefits we can expect from our seas in the future. Recently, NERC and DEFRA have initiated a major new research programme on Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry that will improve knowledge about these issues. In response to this call, we have assembled a consortium of leading scientists that includes microbiologists, ecologists, physical oceanographers, biogeochemists, mathematical modellers and policy advisors. With assistance from organisations like CEFAS, Marine Scotland and AFBI, they will carry out a series of research cruises around the UK that will map the sensitivity and status of seabed habitats based on their physical condition, the microbial and faunal communities that inhabit them, and the size and dynamics of the nitrogen and carbon pools found there. The latest marine technologies will measure the amount of mixing and flow rates just above the seabed, as well as detailed seabed topography. These measurements will allow better understanding of the physical processes responsible for movement and mixing of sediment, nutrient, and carbon. At the same time, cores will be retrieved containing the microbial and faunal communities and their activity and behaviour will be linked to specific biogeochemical responses. Highly specialised autonomous vehicles, called landers, will also measure nutrient concentrations and fluxes at the seabed. Components of the system can then be experimentally manipulated to mimic scenarios of change, such as changing hydrodynamics, disturbance or components of climate change. This will be achieved in the field by generating different flow regimes using a submerged flume or, in the laboratory, using intact sediment communities exposed to different levels of CO2, temperature and oxygen. By measuring the biogeochemical response and behaviour of the microbial and faunal communities to these changes, we will generate an understanding of what may happen if such changes did occur across our shelf seas. We will use all of this information to assess the relative vulnerability of areas of the UK seabed by overlaying the observation and experimental results over maps of various human pressures, which will be of value to planners and policymakers. Mathematical models will test future scenarios of change, such as opening or closing vulnerable areas to fishing or anticipated changes in the factors that control nutrient and carbon stocks. This will be valuable in exploring different responses to external pressures and for deciding which management measures should be put in place to preserve our shelf seas for future generations.

see Master Je-S form submitted by Edinburgh University.