We have identified the following points among the main key benefits for your organisation as a reference laboratory:

• Active involvement at an early stage in the debate on highly strategic topics:
  • Today's emerging substances might be among tomorrow's regulated substances. The network will track newly emerging pollutants from their first appearance in the scientific literature, thus providing an important scientific contribution to the identification and risk assessment of future priority substances.
  • Using its close links with the scientific community and Contact Points / reference laboratories in the different countries, the network will carry out a systematic collection (and conversion into a common format) of the information that is currently scattered in many different places and not included in national databases.
  • The network will ensure that as soon as an emerging substance is identified as a pollutant of concern, thereby requiring regular monitoring, there is sufficient capability across the EU for measuring it at the routine level. To this purpose, in the field of water policy, a link will be established between NORMAN and DG ENV in the framework of the CMA activities beyond 2009.
• Opportunities for collaborative research with other research institutes:
  • Access to regularly maintained information via the NORMAN databases will make it easier and faster for you to find - in Europe and beyond - institutes, projects and experts suitable for collaborative research initiatives with your institute in the field of emerging substances.
• More effective support to public authorities:
  • As a reference laboratory in your country you are asked by your competent authority to provide technical and scientific support about the implementation of current environmental legislation and newly emerging risks (European Environment & Health Action Plan (COM(2004)416): what do we know about an emerging pollutant, what are the best available methods to measure it, what are its effects, what are the levels of occurrence in the environment in other countries, are there laboratories measuring this substance and are our monitoring protocols sufficiently validated to make results comparable or do we need to start interlaboratory exercises? Being a member of the NORMAN network will allow you as a reference laboratory to establish quicker contact with other partners in order to find the answer to a question, or rapidly put together a sufficient number of laboratories interested in starting a common action / work on a given emerging substance or group of substances, etc.
  • Thanks to the action of a European network, approaches for assessment and measurement of emerging pollutants will become more easily harmonised at European level, thereby reducing the effort and cost of development by single laboratories at the national level.
  • The selection of targeted compounds to be monitored at the national level can benefit from an exchange of experiences among partners of a European-wide network.
• A bigger voice speaking to the EC and other public institutions:
  • The EC wishes to address NORMAN as an independent and competent forum for an overview of the state of the art for topics of concern, research needs and priorities for future regulations.
  • NORMAN will organise regular Expert Group meetings and will widely disseminate Position Papers, which will boost the promotion of new research projects in priority fields.
• Visibility and credibility in the field of emerging substances:
  • The network will add value to activities and research initiatives carried out at the national and international level, thereby ensuring the necessary synergy among the various research programmes dealing with emerging substances.

We have identified the following points among the main key benefits for your organisation as a research institute:

• Active involvement at an early stage in the debate on highly strategic topics:
  • Today's emerging substances might be among tomorrow's regulated substances. The network will track newly emerging pollutants from their first appearance in the scientific literature, thus providing an important scientific contribution to the identification and risk assessment of future priority substances.
  • Using its close links with the scientific community and Contact Points / reference laboratories in the different countries, the network will carry out a systematic collection (and conversion into a common format) of the information that is currently scattered in many different places and not included in national databases.
  • The network will ensure that as soon as an emerging substance is identified as a pollutant of concern, thereby requiring regular monitoring, there is sufficient capability across the EU for measuring it at the routine level. To this purpose, in the field of water policy, a link will be established between NORMAN and DG ENV in the framework of the CMA activities beyond 2009.
• Opportunities for collaborative research with other research institutes:
  • Access to regularly maintained information via the NORMAN databases will make it easier and faster for you to find - in Europe and beyond - institutes, projects and experts suitable for collaborative research initiatives with your institute in the field of emerging substances.
• A bigger voice speaking to the EC and other public institutions:
  • A close link with policy-makers at national and European level will help to ensure that current policy development takes account of research outcomes.
  • the EC wishes to address NORMAN as an independent and competent forum for an overview of the state of the art for topics of concern, research needs and priorities for future regulations.
  • NORMAN will organise regular Expert Group meetings and will widely disseminate Position Papers which will boost the promotion of new research projects in high priority fields.
• Visibility and credibility in the field of emerging substances:
  • The network will add value to activities and research initiatives carried out at the national and international level, thereby ensuring the necessary synergy among the various research programmes dealing with emerging substances.

We have identified the following points among the main key benefits for your organisation as an institutional body:

• Reduction of the time from 'discovery' of an emerging substance to the point of producing reliable monitoring (chemical and biological) results:
  • Today's emerging substances might be among tomorrow's regulated substances. The network will track newly emerging pollutants from their first appearance in the scientific literature, thus providing an important scientific contribution to the identification and risk assessment of future priority substances.
  • Using its close links with the scientific community and Contact Points / reference laboratories in the different countries, the network will carry out a systematic collection (and conversion into a common format) of the information that is currently held in many different places and not included in national databases.
  • Because the network will operate at the European level, approaches for assessment and measurement of emerging pollutants will become more easily harmonised across Europe, thereby reducing the effort and cost of development by single laboratories at the national level.
  • The selection of targeted compounds to be monitored at the national level can benefit from an exchange of experiences among partners of a Europe-wide network.
  • The network will ensure that, as soon as an emerging substance is identified as a pollutant of concern - thereby requiring regular monitoring - there is sufficient capability across the EU for measuring it at the routine level. To this purpose, in the field of water policy, a link will be established between NORMAN and DG ENV in the framework of the CMA activities beyond 2009.
• Provide an important scientific contribution for decision-making:
  • NORMAN, as an independent and competent forum will provide an overview of the state of the art for topics of concern, research needs and priorities for future regulations.
• Ensuring the necessary synergy among the various research programmes dealing with emerging substances all over the world.