SPRINT (Sustainable Plant Protection Transition: A Global Health Approach)

The CCRI is part of an EU Horizon 2020 funded research project, SPRINT (Sustainable Plant Protection Transition: A Global Health Approach) that started on 1st September 2020 and runs for five years until August 2025.  SPRINT is a transdisciplinary project comprised of 28 partners from across Europe and Argentina from the fields of soil science, agronomy, ecology, fate modelling, (eco)toxicology, epidemiology and social science. 

With increasing concerns about the impact of pesticides on the environment and human health, the main aim of the project is to develop and validate a Global Health Risk Assessment Toolbox to integrate assessments of the risks and impacts of pesticides on ecosystem, plant, animal and human health.  The project will also identify transition paths to accelerate more sustainable use of pesticides.  The distribution and impacts of mixtures of pesticide on health will be evaluated across 11 case study sites with contrasting (conventional, integrated and organic) farming systems, covering the main European crops, and soy production for feed in Argentina destined for the European market. 

The main expected impacts of the project are to:

  • Improve monitoring of pesticide uses and pressures on health and the environment, by developing an integrated global Health Risk Assessment Toolbox.
  • Development of transition pathways towards the sustainable use of pesticides
  • Improve farmer, consumer and citizen awareness of and trust in global health approaches to pesticide risk and impact assessment.

The CCRI team is led by Jane Mills and includes Matt Reed and Charlotte Chivers.  The team is the Work package leader for dissemination, communication and exploitation and is involved in the work package developing policy recommendations.

You can find out more about the project at the SPRINT website: https://www.sprint-h2020.eu/ and by watching this short explainer video.

SPRINT is also active across a range of Social Media platforms: