News

UNESCO – EU H2020 LimnoPlast Conference

Diving into freshwater microplastic pollution: Connecting water, environmental and social sciences

WHERE: UNESCO – Paris, France
WHEN: 06 – 08 March 2023

Join us and share your experience and ideas. The conference will be free of charge. For more information and to register visit the homepage and follow us on twitter
@LimnoPlast.

About the Conference:
Plastic Pollution is one of the major challenges of the Anthropocene. Freshwater ecosystems are vastly polluted by microplastics, making rivers a major pathway of microplastic emissions to the ocean. The conference aims to put the challenge of freshwater microplastic pollution at the centre of the UN global agenda for sustainable development. Not only will knowledge and innovative solutions, generated by the scientists and Early-stage Researchers supported by
the H2020 LimnoPlast project, be disseminated, but the conference will also provide a global discussion platform on action that can be taken by all stakeholders to reduce the freshwater  microplastic pollution and its impact on water resources, ecosystems, wildlife and the ocean.

Conference conclusions, key messages and recommendations for policy makers will be a contribution to the 2023 UN Water Conference.

Since today, you can find our publications and Deliverables all together in our LimnoPlast community on zenodo. Check it out!

Organized by the University of Vienna and University of Bergen, the ESRs got insights in the world of psychology and their view on the microplastic challenge. “Mind-opening”, “surprising”, “fun”, “INTENSE” … some words our ESR buddies and friends used to describe their experience. Go transdisciplinarity!

At the Universtiy of Gothenburg, one of the Beneficiaries of LimnoPlast, the ESRs got the chance to learn about toxicology of microplastics hands-on in the lab. The second time, the ESRs could spent some time together in person – let’s hope, this will continue!

Several ESRs of LimnoPlast attended the SETAC conference in Copenhagen from 15.-19. May 2022. They presented their work in several posters and talks and formed the LimnoPlast droplet – great cooperation.

From our interactive webinar series #microplastinar the recordings are uploaded on our very own youtube-channel and in our Media Library. You want to get new insights on Microplastics and Plastic Pollution – Check out our diverse experts!

The first  six videos, starting with Richard Thompson, are already online. The others will follow – every Wednesday we will publish the next one.

Stay tuned on twitter and linkedIn, so you don’t miss any news.

We did it – first network meeting of the LimnoPlast team in person!

The week started with a 2-day workshop about Circular Economy for all of our ESRs. The event took place at the Fraunhofer Forum in Berlin and was organized by Fraunhofer UMSICHT. After basics about plastic loss and circular economy (CE) e.g. history an concept of CE, T-Strategies in the CE, typical losses of microplastics in the life cycle, external speakers gave an explanation of value chains, state of knowledge regarding plastic emissions and environmental trade-offs in the field of tires (wdk, Wirtschaftsverband der deutschen Kautschukindustrie e.V.), textiles (University of Applied Sciences Niederrhein) and insulation materials (IHV, Industrieverband Hartschaum e.V.). Afterwards, three groups where set up and and the workshop roundtables started, in which the ESRs discussed about point of losses and interventions, derivation of measures to reduce microplastics losses and identification of stakeholders – supported by experts from Fraunhofer UMSICHT.

After two intensive workshop days, the network meeting dinner at the Zero Waste Restaurant FREA was the perfect opportunity to get to know each other with the other joining LimnoPlast-Team members from all over Europe, like supervisors and management team. After warm welcome words of the coordinator Christian Laforsch a cozy get together took place.

Even more LimnoPlasties joined the network on the following day, both in person but also online. After a status update and a look into the future by the project management team, parallel hybrid work package meetings and deliverable meetings took place – even the coffee breaks were used for intense discussions showing that those in person meetings are indispensable – especially for such an interdisciplinary, international EU project.

The reward for the busy and productive first half of the day followed the same day with a boat trip along the Spree river. Windy and cold, but another great opportunity to connect and get to know each other beside neat working facts. An eventful networking event finally came to a pleasant end in a comfortable atmosphere with food and drinks. In conclusion, everyone agreed: the LimnoPlast-Team is very much looking forward to the next time!

#microplastinar- roadmap for our exciting microplastics talks journey

In this interactive microplastinar series, we will take a closer look at the wicked problem of plastic pollution and microplastics. Our speakers are experts in plastic pollution and have diverse backgrounds in academia, policy making, civil society and beyond. They will provide unique perspectives on the causes and impacts of the problem and discuss solutions.

Get and detailed overview over all already planned #microplastinars and a brief description of the invited speakers and register as soon as possible to become part of the microplastinar community! Completely for free!

Stay in contact with us via twitter and linkedin to be always up-to-date!

Finally – Official Kick-off Meeting of LimnoPlast!

Due to Covid-19 we are conducting this meeting digitally. However, we are looking forward to seeing everyone online at least and we have created a versatile, interactive agenda to keep everyone motivated in front of the screens. We are looking forward to this official start together with our fantastic consortium – but of course, we are all the more pleased to meeting all participants face-to-face as soon this is possible in a safe way!

Let´s officially start this fantastic EU-funded ITN project all over Europe!

Stay tuned – various exciting projects are waiting in the pipeline!

The University of Bayreuth Collaborative Research Centre 1357 Microplastics Understanding the mechanisms and processes of biological effects, transport and formation: From model to complex systems as a basis for new solutions, funded by the German Research Foundation, intends to establish a new junior research group in Ecotoxicology and is therefore seeking applicants for the position

Independent Junior Research Group Leader
in Microplastics Ecotoxicology (f/m/d)

for a fixed term of six years (A13Z).

Applicants must have excellent expertise in the field of ecotoxicology and risk assessment. Additional experience in microplastics research is of benefit. Further requirements for applicants are, that they are early career researchers with max. up to 6 years after finishing their PhD. PostDoc experience and experience in supervising students is helpful.

Find out more about this position!