REMEDIATE: chemistry for contaminated land
Sabrina Cipullo AMRSC is a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher (ESR) in environmental technology at Cranfield University, working on environmental chemistry and toxicological approaches to site assessments. She explains how the four year EU project, REMEDIATE, can provide better informed solutions for remediation, the process of reversing or stopping environmental damage.
More than 200 years of industrialisation has left a legacy of contaminated sites across Europe. According to the European Environment Agency, around three million sites in our continent alone are affected by potentially polluting activities, of which about 500,000 are in need of remediation. As a result, there is considerable pressure to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions to the problems posed by pollution; this is the aim of REMEDIATE ITN (initial training network).
This four-year project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, brings together 13 early stage researchers from all over the world, including China, Nepal, Canada, the US, India, Iran, Italy, Moldova, Serbia, and Portugal. REMEDIATE merges internationally renowned research groups and industrial expertise, to tackle different challenges through 13 individual research projects, ranging from environmental chemistry, toxicology and molecular microbiology, to geophysics and modelling. The aim is to deliver an integrated approach to contaminated land issues, and develop innovative technologies and commercial processes for site investigation, risk assessment and monitoring, resulting in effective remediation.
Queen’s University Belfast, Cranfield University, Dublin City University, University of Duisburg-Essen, University of Turin and TE Laboratories Ltd, will collaborate to develop improved methodologies for assessing the complex environmental chemistry of contaminated land and to improve our understanding of contaminant distribution and the toxicological impacts on potential receptors. Improving the way we assess risk through environmental chemistry and toxicology approaches to site assessments is only one of the multiple aspects that REMEDIATE wants to tackle. ESRs at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Copenhagen are studying contamination impacts on microbial diversity through advanced metagenomics techniques and plant-microorganisms relationships, to improve monitoring and remediation tools for metal polluted sites.
Dublin City University and Queen’s University Belfast focus on geophysical approaches to monitor remediation processes through microbial fuel cell biosensors applications. SUPREN GmbH is working on developing dedicated ‘Life Cycle Analysis’ software to assess sustainability of different remediation strategies.
The overall project is gaining attention, and our ESRs do not miss a chance to showcase their research! REMEDIATE students and supervisors went to the first joint international conference combining the International Symposium on Environment and Health and the International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry in 2016, at the National University of Ireland in Galway. It was a good opportunity for our ESRs to showcase their research, and listen to great talks and world-class speakers. Coren, ESR at the University of Dublin, was awarded best student presentation prize!
Great importance is also given to outreach events. I recently became a STEM ambassador to inspire and engage young people about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. I have been involved in outreach activities and took part in two major events. The first one was ‘Science Uncovered’ at the Natural History Museum (part of European Researchers' Night sponsored by HORIZON 2020), and the second was ‘Contamination Expo Series’ in September-October 2016, to help people better understand chemistry and contaminated land. I had a miniature model illustrating a biopile treatment (soil remediation), and a schema illustrating how bacteria can break down organic components and help the degradation of contaminants.
I was also invited to present my work on the ‘bioavailability of complex chemical mixtures’ at #YourSOILution conference on 13 December, an event organised by ALS Environmental. I also presented my work at the Royal Society of Chemistry’s ‘Environmental Chemistry of Water, Sediment and Soil: Early Career Researchers Meeting’, which was a great opportunity to engage with other young chemists working on related topics, and generated a lot of ideas about how to continue to expand my skills and my professional qualifications.
Besides working with great teams of researchers at their host site, these young scientists are very excited about their secondments and summer schools. The secondments are great opportunities to enhance existing collaborations between the ESRs, participating beneficiaries, and partner organisations and are also a way to develop skills necessaries to become creative and innovative entrepreneurs.
The ESRs have already had multiple opportunities to interact and collaborate with the industrial sector, developing networks and exporting their knowledge. The first summer school was held at Queen’s University Belfast, over four days in June. The theme of the week was ‘Site Investigation, Sampling Strategies, and Risk Assessment’ and included two visits to Belfast City Council sites undergoing remediation. Neha, our international ESR at the University of Turin, originally from India, described her experience as “a valuable opportunity for future collaborations” and “a good way to develop close friendships”.
If you look forward to hearing about their study outcomes, next on the REMEDIATE calendar is the 14th International Conference on “Sustainable use and management of soil, sediment and water resources”, 26–30 June 2017 in Lyon, France.
Outside of my research, I volunteer for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemists’ Community Fund (working name of the Benevolent Fund). Through this I was recently invited to become a member of the RSC’s Analytical Division in East Anglia and have already received a lot of positive support from fellow members. I believe it will be really relevant for me to engage with people that have been in the field for longer than I have and would definitely recommend other Royal Society of Chemistry members get involved with their local networks.
Finally, thanks to Soapbox Science selecting me as a speaker, I will have the chance to take part in the Milton Keynes event on Saturday 29 July 12 – 3 pm. Soapbox Science aims to promote the visibility of women in science, and challenge public (and academic) perceptions of who a scientist is. It is a fantastic event to be involved with and will involve training on public speaking, social media and blogs, plus of course spreading our love for research and science stories.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 643087.
Further information
Find out more about the REMEDIATE project on their website and blog.
Become a STEM ambassador with STEMNET.
Find out how our Chemists’ Community Fund supports our members and how you can get involved.
Find out more about Soapbox Science and how to get involved.
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