SYBERAC FAQ

SYBERAC is a European research project dedicated to renewing how to assess the environmental risks of chemicals. According to IPBES global assessment report 30, pollution is one of the five main direct drivers of biodiversity loss – so a new way of environmental risk assessment is more than necessary. The project aims to move away from the current "siloed" approach where pesticides, biocides, and industrial chemicals are assessed separately, toward a systems-based Environmental Risk Assessment. This holistic approach considers the complex interactions between chemicals, biodiversity, and ecosystem.

SYBERAC stands for: Towards a SYstems-Based, holistic Environmental Risk Assessment of Chemicals

Current evidence suggests that chemical pollution does not just harm and kill animals or plants, but can:

• Disrupt food webs and ecosystem stability.

• Reduce genetic diversity, making populations less resilient.

• Impair essential ecosystem services (the benefits human beings get from ecosystems) like pollination, soil fertility, and water purification.

SYBERAC aims to quantify these complex risks to better protect our natural environment.

Current "state-of-the-art" assessments have several problems that SYBERAC aims to address:

• Focus on single chemicals: Right now, assessments look at individual chemicals based on their use. This ignores that people and the environment are often exposed to multiple chemicals at the same time (“cocktail effect”), and how these chemicals may interact with one another.

• Issues with polar chemicals: Computer models that calculate the risk of chemicals in the environment work well for non-polar chemicals. However, there is little reliable data for polar, charged, or highly mobile chemicals –  like modern biocides, pesticides, or pharmaceuticals. Hence, models don’t fully reflect our current reality. 

• Connections between species are often ignored: Assessments rarely consider how chemicals move through food chains (the “food web”) or how species are connected.

• Only a few life aspects are considered: Tests usually focus on survival, growth, and reproduction of a few so-called “model species”. Impacts on behaviour, nutrient cycles, or genetic diversity are often missed.

• Migratory factors are missing: Models mostly look at local areas. Migrating species or those needing multiple connected habitats are not properly considered.

1. Right now, chemicals that are used across different sectors are evaluated by distinct regulatory bodies. By bridging the gap between these evaluations, we can reduce redundant reporting and create a more integrated, efficient workflow.

• The SYBERAC Plan: We want to help implement the "One Substance – One Assessment" rule. This concept was launched by the European Union (under the Green Deal) to improve the current system. It means checking a chemical just once, thoroughly, for all its possible uses.

2. Right now, regulators often get stuck measuring tiny details that don't really help protect the environemtn, while missing the big picture.

• The SYBERAC Plan: We follow a smart rule, as summarised by economist John Maynard Keynes: "It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong." We want to focus on the big, real risks to the environment rather than getting lost in details.

3. Testing in the real world (not just a lab). Sometimes, scientists build systems that look good on paper but are impossible to use in real life.

• The SYBERAC Plan: We are working directly with our stakeholders, namely land managers like farmers, regulators, and companies from the very start. We are testing new tools in real settings in our Case Studies. If the stakeholders say, "This is too complicated," the project has to fix it to make it practical.

Case Study 1: Spain & UK

• The Problem: Farmers spray different pesticides throughout the year. We don't know what happens when these chemicals mix together in the soil and animals.

• What we are doing: We are checking winter cereal fields (like wheat). We want to see how this "chemical cocktail" affects the insects and the birds that live there.

Case Study 2: Spain

• The Problem: We usually study water pollution and land pollution separately. But in reality, they are connected as nothing exists in isolation in a real-world environment.

• What we are doing: We are looking at bats and frogs.

  • Example: Chemicals wash into a pond -> water insects absorb the chemicals through the water -> bats eat the insects. We are tracking this hidden path of pollution.

Case Study 3: Across Europe

• The Problem: Migratory birds, who don’t live in the same region all year, may fly across many countries. A bird might find safe food in one country and feed on something contaminated with pesticides in another.

• What we are doing: We are tracking migratory birds (like the godwit) and testing the birds' droppings (poop) to see what they ate and which chemicals they picked up during their long journey across Europe.

Case Study 4: Denmark & Spain

• The Problem: Human-targeted pharmaceuticals and personal care products enter the sewage system, and farmers treat farm animals with medicines like antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, or painkillers. The remains of these products can reach the environment and have unplanned effects.

  • In Denmark: We check what happens when sewage sludge from water treatment plants is spread on agricultural fields as fertiliser. Does it kill useful soil bacteria?

  • In Spain: We check vultures that eat dead farm animals. Are the vultures getting sick from the medicines in the meat of the cadavers?

Case Study 5: Portugal & UK

• The Problem: Farmers spray crops above ground, but the chemicals soak into the ground, where they may have unwanted side effects.

• What we are doing: We are testing the soil and using DNA tests to see if pesticides are killing the tiny invisible microbes, worms and other small animals living in the soil, that keep the soil healthy and help plants grow.

Case Study 6: Netherlands

• The Problem: Nature reserves are supposed to protect the landscape and living beings inside their borders. However, wind might blow chemicals from farms, nearby as well as far away, into them.

What we are doing: We are testing the air and soil in nature parks. We want to prove if chemicals from farms are being transported by the wind, or "drifting" over, and contaminating the natural areas that are supposed to be free of new contamination.

Chemical pollution is a major driver of biodiversity loss, yet current risk assessment methods are often fragmented. They tend to focus on individual substances and specific organism groups in isolation, potentially missing the "big picture" of how chemical mixtures affect entire ecosystems. SYBERAC addresses urgent environmental challenges by:

• Overcoming the limitations of fragmented regulatory silos.

• Protecting genetic and functional biodiversity rather than just single species.

• Ensuring that risk assessments reflect real-world scenarios, including cumulative exposure and landscape-level impacts.

SYBERAC uses a transdisciplinary approach combining ecotoxicology, systems biology, landscape modelling, and social science. Our research activities include:

• Case Studies (gathering real world data): Six different case studies across Europe test systems-based approaches in real-world scenarios.

• Advanced Modelling: Once the data is collected, we use computers to scale it up:  Developing advanced models to predict how chemicals affect populations and ecosystems over time and space.

• Stakeholder Engagement: Research is useless if regulators, and farmers and other end-users can't apply it. Because of this, we are working directly with regulators, industry, local administrations, farmers and other land managers to ensure new methods are practical and implementable.

Proof of Concept: The final step is combining the field data and models into a Systems-Based Environmental Risk Assessment (sb-ERA) Framework. Demonstrating how a holistic risk assessment can be operationalized within EU regulations.

SYBERAC aims to:

• Develop understanding of chemical impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services

• Develop understanding of the routes of environmental release, fate and routes of exposure and drivers of toxicological and ecological impacts of chemical pollution on highly exposed terrestrial species and biodiversity

• Develop methods to establish routes of contamination and fate pathways in terrestrial ecosystems

• Assess chemical risks by developing effect-based approaches considering mixture effects

• Development of models linking i) chemical ecotoxicity ii) impacts on biodiversity (genetic and functional) and iii) ecosystem services

• Identify and communicate preventive and mitigation measures for chemical impacts on terrestrial biodiversity

SYBERAC will provide scientific evidence and tools that can:

• Improve European chemical regulations. 

• Help regulators make more informed, holistic decisions.

• Support farmers and land managers in adopting safer practices.

• Contribute to halting biodiversity loss across Europe.

A regulator is an official body that manages a specific sector by setting rules and checking compliance to ensure safety and fairness (e.g. at the EU level the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approves safe ingredients, at the national level the French ANSES authorises specific pesticide products for sale, and at the local level regional inspectors check that farmers are spraying them correctly).

SYBERAC provides a range of materials for dissemination, including:

• Project Factsheets

• Logo packs

• Public deliverables and scientific publications These resources are available to partners and stakeholders to ensure consistent communication about the project's goals and results.

You can follow updates through our “News” page and social media channels (LinkedIn, Bluesky, Facebook). We also release a regular newsletter. Stakeholders interested in contributing to SYBERAC with their knowledge are invited to participate in our open webinars and workshops.

If you have questions, comments, or would like to collaborate, please use the contact form.