New European topic centres

At its meeting on 29 November 2000, the Management Board of the Agency appointed four organisations to lead new European Topic Centres (ETCs) in 2001.

WRc plc of Medmenhan, United Kingdom, will lead the ETC on Water. This topic centre will bring together many of the activities of the previous ETCs on Inland Waters and Marine & Coastal Environment and focus on support to the Water Framework Directive.

National Institute for Public Health and Environment of Bilthoven, the Netherlands, will lead the ETC on Air and Climate Change. This topic centre will bring together many of the activities of the previous ETCs on Air Quality and Air Emissions and expand coverage of climate change issues to focus on support to air quality and climate change policies and programmes.

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle of Paris, France, will lead the ETC on Nature Protection and Biodiversity. This topic centre will expand the work of the previous ETC on Nature Conservation into more areas of biodiversity, in particular the Community Biodiversity Strategy, and

Danish Environment Protection Agency/City of Copenhagen will lead the ETC on Waste and Material Flows. This topic centre will expand the work of the previous ETC on waste into more aspects of material flow and resource management.

These new ETCs are designed to build on the expertise and experience of the first ETCs but also introduce new experts and national partners. This includes several from central European countries that are about to join the Agency and participate fully in the work programme.

A new round of tendering is underway for a fifth ETC, which will also start work in 2001. This ETC will be on the Terrestrial Environment and should be appointed by the Board at its March meeting.

Further details of the ETC consortia will be made available in February when the agreements with each ETC are finalised and the new work can begin.