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Policy, science and industry synergies to unlock hidden small hydropower in the European Union under the water-energy-society-ecosystem nexus
No full textHydropower developed in existing hydraulic infrastructures, water facilities and industries, including non-powered dams and weirs, wastewater treatment plants and water distribution networks, is known as “hidden hydro”. Although it avoids many of the socio-environmental disturbances that might be generated by conventional hydropower, coordinated actions among Policy, Science and Industry (PSI) for scaling hidden hydro remain fragmented. This paper examines recent European Union (EU) policy and research programmes, framed under the Water-Energy-Society-Ecosystem (WESE) nexus, and evaluates their capacity to stimulate investments in hidden hydro, with specific focus on small hydropower (SHP). By harmonizing existing literature, this study identifies an untapped EU's potential of hidden hydro of up to 15 TWh/year (approx. 30% of current SHP annual generation in the EU), excluding the potential of upgrading existing SHP systems. Realising this capacity could generate multiple socio-economic co-benefits beyond clean electricity for society, that were also quantified: employment, community engagement, research investments, market trade and industrial innovation, ultimately enhancing competitiveness. The findings underscore that effective PSI synergies are essential for fully appraising and exploiting hidden hydro's contribution to the WESE nexus, and for aligning EU policies and research agendas with this resource.JRC.D.2 - Ocean and Wate
Putting Science into Standards – 3D Bioprinting: Towards Standards in Biomedicine
No full text3D Bioprinting stands at the forefront of biomedical innovation, offering transformative potential for creating functional tissues, thereby advancing regenerative medicine and in vitro testing methods. However, challenges such as reproducibility, scalability, and bioink standardisation remain. The PSIS workshop, with 56 experts from 17 countries, highlighted the importance of standardisation in overcoming key challenges to reproducibility, quality, and safety. Participants focused on standardisation needs for bioinks, biomaterials, printing equipment, and quality and safety assessments, paving the way for impactful advancements. This collaborative approach underscores the need for updated regulatory frameworks to safely integrate 3D Bioprinting into healthcare, enhancing personalised medicine and fostering groundbreaking biomedical applications. In particular, the need for standards regarding 3D Bioprinting process and materials (bioinks) emerged, together with the demand of adapting standards for cells and tissues from nearby sectors, as well as for quality and safety assessment.JRC.F.2 - Technologies for Healt
Stress and resilience in northern European marine ecosystems
No full textIn the field of resilience, there is a current debate between those that find evidence of hysterical regimes shifts (i.e., a sudden change of state, where the path of return is different from the path of departure) in every marine ecosystem they investigate and those who are skeptical about this ubiquity. Here, we used the same technique of the first group but taking a precautionary approach. We let the data tell us whether a folded stability landscape adequately described the development of the ecosystem or not. We applied this approach to four data-rich northern European ecosystems and found evidence in two of them, the Baltic and the North Sea, but not in the Icelandic Waters and the Barents Sea. Marine ecosystems are facing multiple pressures from human activities, such as fishing and nutrient inputs from farming and agriculture, compounded by the global effects of climate change. As a result, the ecosystem services that societies depend on are at risk from the cumulative impact of these pressures. To better understand how different ecosystems respond, it is essential to assess their resilience. While predicting ecosystem resilience remains challenging, significant progress has been made in developing methods to measure it. In this study, we assessed resilience in four northern European marine ecosystems: the Icelandic Waters, the Barents Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the North Sea, spanning 3 to 5 decades. “Folded stability landscapes” were constructed for the Baltic and North Sea. This region provides a unique setting, with a south-north gradient from temperate to subarctic environments and a southeast-northwest gradient from open to semienclosed topographies. The Icelandic Waters and Barents Sea evolved relatively continuously, while the Baltic Sea and North Sea underwent more drastic changes. By comparing results across these gradients, we explore the role of isolation, level of pressures, and food web complexity in shaping resilience patterns and discuss the implications for managing resilient marine ecosystems in the future.JRC.D.6 - Nature Conservation and Observation
New insights into technical challenges and barriers for implementing circular strategies within the built environment
No full textAchieving Net Zero targets will require a fundamental transformation of the building sector. Circular economy (CE) is seen as a key enabler of sustainability, offering benefits such as resource efficiency, waste minimization, and carbon footprint reduction. Despite growing interest, CE adoption in the building sector remains limited, reflecting persistent technical and organisational implementation challenges. This study thus examines technical challenges and barriers to implementing circular strategies by offering stakeholder perspectives in the building sector across multiple regions. Specifically, this study investigate which technical barriers most constrain circular practice across the building lifecycle and how their perceived importance varies by sector, region, and experience. Our study draws on (i) a structured narrative review literature review of key documents such as academic articles, standards, policy reports, strategic roadmaps, and white papers, and (ii) a multi-region survey(n = 270) of stakeholders in the building sector and adjacent supply chains. Meanwhile, this study analyse barrier categories, interoperability of tools/data, documentation and traceability, and capability gaps with map them to lifecycle stages, and compare priorities across respondent groups using descriptive contrasts. Through a detailed examination of stakeholders’ priorities, spanning materials, products and components, constructed building stocks, and urban living environments, this study identifies where technical barriers most constrain circular practice along planning/design, construction, operation, and end-of-life. The findings highlight immediate technical priorities, interoperability of tools/data, documentation and traceability, and practitioner capabilities with practical implications for planners, engineers, and public agencies. Consistent with this focus, interoperability and documentation/traceability outrank policy instruments as near-term constraints across roles and regions; capability gaps are more salient among early-career respondents, while public agencies emphasise indicators/monitoring and industry prioritises feasibility and transaction costs. They provide a bounded, practice-oriented map of technical constraints and inform staged actions to advance circular practice. For scope clarity, coverage is multi-region rather than global, and sectoral statistics on emissions, energy use, and waste are discussed in the Introduction with sources.JRC.E.3 - Built Environmen
A First Quantitative Assessment of Soil Health at European Scale Considering Soil Genesis
No full textSoil health degradation is a major threat to European food security, biodiversity, and climate stability. While scientists have debated how to define soil health during recent decades, a quantifiable framework for monitoring, management, and policy remains lacking.
We introduce SHERPA (Soil Health Evaluation, Rating Protocol, and Assessment) as a framework for discussion and present a first quantitative soil health assessment across Europe.
All major soil degradation processes (with the exception of organic contamination) were scored, averaged, and subtracted from the intrinsic soil health resulting in quantitative final scores.
As reported before, cropland soils throughout Europe are highly degraded. Surprisingly, soil health of grasslands is also very negatively impacted. Soil erosion, nutrient surplus, and pesticide risk are largely driving poor soil health aligning with reported high biodiversity loss in agricultural land. Forest soils are also surprisingly low in health, mainly because of nitrogen surplus, reflecting documented widespread forest decline from nutrient imbalances. Interactive maps highlight specific threats to soil health across Europe, offering valuable insights for targeted action.
SHERPA is able to quantify soil health across Europe. However, at the current state of data availability, soil health is likely to be overestimated. Monitoring data of soil structure, compaction, pesticide spread and, in forest ecosystems, disturbance of humus layer are urgently needed for final assessment of soil health.JRC.D.1 - Land and Climat
Managing change while phasing out animal testing in chemical safety assessments – a collection of stakeholder experiences and expectations
No full textThis is a summary of a series of bilateral discussions between the European Commission and different stakeholders in the context of developing the EU roadmap towards the phasing out of animal testing in chemical safety assessment. This exercise was performed with a representative spread of stakeholders to harvest a multiplex and informed overview of experiences and expectations in different areas of competence. The intention was to understand how different stakeholder groups are preparing for the transition, as well as their incentives and concerns. The insights gained through these free-floating discussions provided an input to inform the development of the EU roadmap, along with evidence gathered through more formal and structured stakeholder consultations.JRC.F.3 - Systems Toxicolog
Model support tools for Informed Decision Making - MIDAS and sensitivity analysis
No full textModels play a key role in informing evidence-based policymaking, particularly in addressing complex societal-economic-environmental issues. By promoting informed decision-making and responsible use of models, the European Commission (EC) has developed tools and procedures for a trustworthy modelling workflow. Two complementary good modelling practice tools of the EC are presented, and their crucial role in enhancing modelling transparency is detailed. MIDAS – a publicly accessible meta-database that consolidates a standardised information on models and provides real-time information to modelling-supported EU legislative documents – ensures FAIR principles in model use. Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis methods allows us to identify and prioritise sources of uncertainty, and visualise how model uncertainties affect decision-making. To illustrate the role of sensitivity analysis for policymaking an application on the Screening for High Emission Reduction Potential on Air (SHERPA) model is presented. The SIML@B tool for global sensitivity analysis developed by European Commission has been employed.JRC.S.3 - Science for Modelling, Monitoring and Evaluatio
INFORM Severity Index
Get PDFThis report outlines the revised methodology of the INFORM Severity Index, a comprehensive, data-driven tool for assessing humanitarian crises globally. The revision was prompted by user feedback and changes in the data ecosystem since the last publication of the methodology in 2020, and it was developed through a rigorous collaboration between the Joint Research Centre and ACAPS.
A statistical audit of the methodology confirmed its overall robustness, validating its core principles. Based on these findings, the revision focused on refining data collection processes and scoring, improving the aggregation of the "Concentration of conditions," finding alternatives for outdated indicators, and recalculating the model. Further key changes include the rescaling of the score to a 0-10 scale for better alignment with other INFORM products and a revision to the approach for data reliability propagation. This revised methodology enhances the Index's transparency and accuracy, ultimately improving its application in humanitarian decision-making.JRC.E.1 - Disaster Risk Managemen
Economic growth and environmental objectives: An evaluation based on 2021-2027 cohesion policy regional data
No full textThe 2021–2027 cohesion policy programme is required to deliver on the European Union’s green transition priority facilitating reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Our analysis shows that green investments under this policy are expected to have a positive impact on GDP and employment, particularly in less developed regions. These investments can help reduce the costs of the transition, and also have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, cohesion policy alone cannot drive the transition and additional instruments and actions should be put in place to support all European territories.JRC.B.7 - Innovation Policies and Economic Impac
Literature review on the economics of food waste and losses in the food supply chain
Get PDFThis study presents a systematic literature review of food waste and loss interventions across the entire food supply chain, which is an area often underrepresented in existing research, where the focus is given to consumer level actions. Using the PRISMA method, we screened and selected 45 articles, including 21 review papers and 24 non-review studies. The selected articles were evaluated using the comprehensive criteria proposed by Caldeira et al. (2019), allowing us to map how interventions are planned, assessed, and reported across different supply chain stages and methodologies. Our review is the first to systematically apply these criteria to interventions discussed in research papers, identifying key gaps and strengths. The study concludes with actionable recommendations for improving intervention planning, such as defining clear objectives, ensuring long-term sustainability, and enhancing transferability. This review offers valuable insights for policymakers, businesses, and researchers aiming to design, evaluate, and implement more effective food waste interventions.JRC.D.4 - Economics of Food System